Monday, March 27th, marked the 130th mass shooting in the United States as of 2023. 28 Year old Audrey Hale was identified after being shot and killed on scene of the Convent School, a private Christian school.

“Unfortunately, this is not a minority report, we cannot predict when somebody will commit a crime. If they bought a job legally we can’t predict they aren’t going to do something, they could just use it for protection, or use a shotgun for hunting because that’s popular in some areas,” Economics and Government Teacher Mrs. Surojanie Walton said.

As stated by NPR, 9 year olds, Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, were all shot and killed as well as three members of the administrative staff, 61 year old Cynthia Peak, 60 year old Kathrine Koonce, and 61 year old Mike Hill.

“We can’t predict what someone is going to do. There are people who have had guns for years and all of a sudden they just go off. We don’t know what the trigger is, we don’t know if she actually had access to good mental health care. These things don’t just happen,” Mrs. Walton said.

Policemen Rex Engelbert and Micheal Collazo shot and killed Audrey Hale on the scene where she was identified. Hale had legally purchased seven firearms, three of which she used to attack the school. This has sparked more arguments on the controversy of gun laws.

“Why would we make weapons illegal when criminals will kill without care? You’d basically be leaving the citizens defenseless in the event that they need it,” Junior Erin Foley said.

According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, Hale reportedly wielded two assault rifles and a singular handgun. The police recovered writings that proved this shooting was premeditated, as well as two additional shot guns at her place of residence. According to CNN,. Hale kept a journal describing subjects pertaining to school shootings and firearms courses. She also kept a collection of yearbooks as well as a suicide note.

“Per my knowledge, they don’t look at your medical history during the background check in Florida. Although DeSantis has a bill going through the process to not require a background check for concealed carry,” Senior Luis Lugo said.

According to Gilfords Law Center, in the state of Florida, the groups of people who are prohibited from owning firearms are: “convicted felons, people under domestic restraining orders, people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes against victims they have been married to, lived with, or had children with, people committed to a mental-health facility, or court ruled mentally unfit, fugitives, and people convicted of drug crimes or determined to by a court to be addicted to an illegal controlled substance”

Hale is officially the 5th biological woman to have conducted a mass shooting in history, as well as the first biological woman mass shooter in 2023, according to The Violence Project’s Mass Shooter Database. It is widely believed by friends and family of the perpetrator that she should have never been given the opportunity to own any type of weaponry or firearms.

“Would it have been beneficial to have red flag systems where something comes up where, you know, something comes up maybe they have a past history or maybe an arrest for domestic violence or things that could potentially be dangerous for them to have a gun but if there was nothing on record of any past history or anything that would maybe give a pause to whether this person should have a gun, there’s unfortunately nothing we can do that would be violating our constitutional rights,” Walton said.

Hale fired 152 rounds during the shooting. 126 of which were 5.56 rifle rounds, and 26 being 5mm rounds. She shot through a window of the school at arriving police cars in order to stop the police invasion. Hale’s writings make it apparent that the attack was carefully planned and calculated. She had targeted the school and the Convent Presbyterian Church specifically, but the victims are projected to be random.

“Any type of shooting is horrible, any type of targeted shooting is horrible. I don’t think there is ever a reason to hurt people. In fact, There is no reason to hurt people unless you are defending yourself,” Walton said.