Michigan State University Mass Shooting
By: Shiwani Tamaskar
Monday, February 13, 2023 eight students at the Michigan State University were victims of a mass shooting. Three were killed and five were injured while a gunman was on the campus of MSU. The suspect was identified as Anthony McCrae, a 43 year old man who was later found dead from a self inflicted gunshot.
At 8:18 PM, the usually busy campus had fallen silent as the gunman entered the Berkey Hall, the College of Social Sciences.
At 10:15 PM all the buildings had been secured.
Early the next morning Tuesday, February 14, the shelter-in-place warning was lifted.
Brian Fraser, sophomore (20 years old), Alexandria Verner, junior (20 years old), and Arielle Anderson (19 years old) were the victims of this horrific incident.
For a few students at MSU, this was not their first experience in a school shooting. Freshman student Emma Riddle had experienced the Oxford High shooting in Michigan and senior student Jackie Matthews had experienced the Sandy Hook shooting from the neighboring school Reed intermediate school in Connecticut. Jackie Matthews took to social media to share her story on February 14th. The TikTok video gained attention with thousands of views, likes, and shares. This story highlighted the impact of the gun violence crisis on the people who have had to live through it. She later expressed that the reason she shared the video was to, “make it more than just a news story.” As the number of mass shootings grows rapidly in the US, it is easy to become desensitized to the impacts of them. This far-reaching video illustrates the real life impacts of the sheer amount of massacres that occur in the US because of gun violence and it highlights the necessity for action.
As of the middle of February 2023, the US has experienced around 80 mass shootings according to the Gun Violence Archive. While many groups use different parameters and definitions, The Gun Violence Archive counts a mass shooting as a shooting involving at least 4 or more injured or killed not including the gunman. Just in the first 59 days of the new year, the United States has not seen a suspension or delay in gun violence as there have been more shootings than there even have been days in the year.
Sources:
Tiktok.com
https://www.nytimes.com/article/mass-shootings-2023.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/14/us/michigan-state-university-shooting.html
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting?page=1
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156701701/michigan-state-shooting-updates