With only 11 days of classes left, UM’s campus was buzzing on Thursday, April 17. Students were wrapping up the year by studying for finals, attending award ceremonies and taking graduation photos.
Similarly, Florida State University’s campus was bustling as its 44,00 students neared the end of the semester. But suddenly, at about 11:56 a.m., shots rang out. Two people were killed and six victims were injured. As UM students relaxed outside by the lake, FSU students frantically ran for their lives, hiding under desks and barricading classrooms.
FSU’s tragedy begs the question that has gone unanswered too many times: How much longer will Americans stand for gun violence that threatens their children’s lives?
As another Florida school with close connections to FSU, our UM community deeply feels the impact of this tragic event. Many of us have friends and family at FSU and enjoy a strong rivalry and partnership with FSU.
For me, the shooting is very personal. I spent the afternoon texting my cousin, a freshman at FSU, making sure she was safe. I couldn’t even ask if she was “OK,” because how could she be OK when her college campus resembled a war zone?
The shooter was identified as Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old student at FSU who is the stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy. Ikner used his stepmother’s retired police handgun to open fire on the FSU campus. Police later found a shotgun at the scene and an AR-15-style rifle in the car he drove.
I’m heartbroken, and I’m angry.
Another shooter terrorized FSU’s campus in 2014, and the Parkland shooting was just seven years ago. Many of the high schoolers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the site of the Parkland shooting, are now college-aged and close to graduation.
Stephanie Horowitz, a current master’s student at FSU, was a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 2018. She has now endured two separate school shootings.
“I never thought it would happen to me for the first time, and here we are,” Horowitz told “CBS Mornings.” “Unfortunately, this is America for you.”
This should not be our reality. It’s obvious that Floridians have suffered enough, bearing the brunt of relaxed gun laws, and it’s time for change.
Currently, Florida does not require a permit to purchase or carry a concealed gun. After the Parkland shooting, Florida raised the minimum age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21, but, the Florida State House recently passed a bill that would allow 18-year-olds to once again purchase both long guns and rifles. The bill has not yet been approved by the State Senate.
It’s time we stop viewing guns as protection that people need access to and start seeing them for the deadly weapons they are. Data from the Gun Violence Archive shows that only 1,436 cases of defensive gun use were filed in 2024. To put this in perspective, 16,725 people died by gunshot in 2024. Guns are not making us safer. In fact, guns are the leading cause of death for teens and children in America.
Instead of undoing any progress and passing laws making it easier to obtain guns, Florida’s government needs to pass laws to protect our college students and our community.
“Thoughts and prayers” aren’t enough when there are actionable steps our leaders and elected officials can take to protect us. I, and a large majority of young Americans, believe this topic should not be a political issue when countless deaths, injuries and trauma can be prevented.
President Trump, when interviewed about the shooting on Thursday, said that “These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do.” Trump continued on to say that he has an obligation to protect the Second Amendment and his administration plans to continue reversing many gun safety laws. Additionally, the Justice Department is considering ways for people with previous criminal convictions to own guns.
If people do the shooting and not the guns, why are we considering giving people with a criminal past, who are more likely to have mental health issues, access to weapons? A study published in the National Library of Medicine found mental health issues such as suicidal or depressive thoughts were common themes among those who commit school shootings.
While mental health treatment might be the ultimate solution to preventing these tragedies from occurring, it’s not working fast enough.
It’s not even four full months into 2025, and America has already experienced 81 mass shootings.
We need policies that limit access to guns, and we need them now. Students should not have to fear for their lives, barricade themselves in classrooms and walk out with their hands above their heads.
Mass shootings instill terror in students and devastate victims’ families. To know that and still think that protecting our right to bear arms is more important than our right to feel safe at school should be a crime.