On April 17th, 2025, a gunman opened fire on the campus of Florida State University. With two confirmed victims and a handful of seriously injured students, the tragedy left us with broken hearts and a broken sense of safety. Students all across the state of Florida- myself included- find themselves questioning a future of attending school without fear of fatality.
Officials have reported 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, the stepson of the Leon County sheriff’s deputy, to be the prime suspect in this shooting. Around 11:50 am, the shooter approached the main campus and set off a series of gunshots, which soon sounded the university’s alert system and the nearby Tallahassee police force. With this, FSU immediately went into lockdown and canceled all remaining classes for the week.
“I was extremely terrified,” said Mollie Weinstein, a sophomore at FSU. “I just thought to hide as best I could and wait.” While she wasn’t close to the scene, the former West Boca student was overwhelmed by the rapid swarm of misinformation and had no idea what was going on around her.
When asked about the future of student safety under our nation’s permissive gun laws, Weinstein urged the demand for action. “There needs to be restrictions,” she responded. “Prayers don’t do anything; the only thing that will help this epidemic is law.”
Fortunately, Weinstein and fellow FSU students felt protected by their dedicated team of campus police, who responded extremely well to the situation. However, the community of university students still argues for increased federal attention, as they should never have been forced to normalize this kind of ongoing violence.
As an incoming freshman at a Florida institution, I’ve been looking forward to a campus overflowing with exciting classes, passionate students, and connective organizations. I never imagined that I would be thinking about barricading classrooms, receiving lockdown alerts, or grieving losses caused by gun violence.
This is not supposed to be our reality. We should not be desensitized to hearing about or experiencing mass shootings. We should not wait for more casualties to care. We can be a part of the solution, whether it be contacting our local representatives, educating ourselves on present policies, or simply checking in on each other. At the end of the day, we all play a part in establishing a safer community.
If you want to get involved, listed below are resources to help support the fight against gun violence (and a petition to lock all doors at FSU):
https://chng.it/ByLKmhTNCd
https://marchforourlives.org/
https://www.everytown.org/
https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/blog/gun-violence/what-you-can-do-right-now-to-help-end-gun-violence/
