A mass shooting is defined as an event in which at least four lives are taken by use of a firearm. On March 27, 2023, the collective heart of the country was broken when yet another elementary school met this quota. This time, it was in Nashville, Tennessee at a school called The Covenant. This marks the 130th shooting in 2023.

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs were the three children whose lives were tragically cut short before they even began. They were all nine years old. They hadn’t even reached double digits. There were also three adults killed: Mike Hill, Katherine Koonce, and Cynthia Peak. 

When asked how they felt about the shooting, each family was devastated. According to Evelyn’s family, they were in shock that something like this could happen in their community. School custodian Mike Hill’s daughter, Brittany Hill, said she was heartbroken in an interview with Angelica Casas at BBC News. Her father absolutely loved his job, even if it was only as a custodian at the school. “I have watched school shootings happen over the years and never thought I would lose a loved one over a person trying to solve a temporary problem with a permanent solution.”

Koonse was the head of The Covenant School. “She did so much for those kids,” says a mother of children enrolled at the Covenant. “She knew every single student by name, she did everything to help them when families couldn’t afford things, it didn’t matter. She found ways for them to stay.”

Cynthia Peak was a substitute teacher for the school. She was originally from Louisiana and survived by her husband and three children. She was close friends with the governor of Tennessee’s wife, Maria Lee, and so was Koonse. Peak was actually supposed to meet with Lee on Monday evening, but passed just hours prior. 

With the absence of these people heavy on their hearts, many Americans are wondering what people are going to do to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. Many say that assault rifles need to be banned, that stricter gun laws need to be enforced, and much more.  Whatever the answer may be, one thing is for sure; this was a tragedy of great proportion and the victims will be greatly missed.