Central Visual Performing Arts High School Shooting 

On an early Monday morning, October 24, 2022, a mass shooting occurred at Central Visual Performing Arts High School, located in south St. Louis, Missouri. A gunman entered the school through a side entrance, at around 9:00 am, carrying a military-style long gun. Germaine Yancy, a security guard at Central Visual Performing Arts High School and the first confrontation with the gunman recalls, “We heard a loud bang, somebody crashed into the building…I saw someone had entered the building with broken glass everywhere.” Additionally, 61-year-old Jean Kuczka died saving her students and Alexandria Bell, who subsequently died weeks before her 16th birthday. Police identified 19-year-old Orlando Harris, a former 2019 graduate of the school, as the perpetrator, and killed him during the incident. Despite the concerns of Harris’ family about his mental health in the weeks leading to the event, and their request to police to confiscate his gun, police did not attempt to prevent the situation. Authorities later found a notebook in Harris’ car, in which he stated, “I don’t have any friends, I don’t have any family, I’ve never had a girlfriend.” The shooting did not get the media attention it deserved, further depicting the commonality of mass shootings in America as a result of untreated mental illness. However, the 648 mass shootings in America in the year 2022 show the effects of Congress’ dangerous hesitancy to implement stricter gun laws.