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Students at Florida State University are demanding more safety measures after a shooter killed two people on campus and injured six others last month. It was the second shooting on the campus in just over a decade, which leaves many people wondering what can be done to make the school feel safe again. Regan McCarthy of member station WFSU reports.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: Gun safety.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: Now.
REGAN MCCARTHY, BYLINE: FSU students joined others outside Florida's capital days after the shooting. They waved signs with phrases like thoughts and prayers don't stop bullets and take away our guns, not our lives.
CATALINA SALGADO: I'm tired of being made to feel afraid in places that are supposed to be safe.
MCCARTHY: Catalina Salgado is a freshman at FSU. She was working out in the school gym when the shooting happened. She remembers the terror she felt while she spent hours in lockdown desperately trying to find out whether her friends were safe.
SALGADO: I don't think anyone can prepare you for this situation. I think in kind of, like, an open center like the gym, there was no way to barricade the walls. I'm used to being prepared for a classroom setting, but there's really no protocol for what to do when you're just walking on campus or kind of in an open center like we were.
MCCARTHY: Salgado isn't the only one who felt unprepared. Simon Monteleone remembers hearing gunfire and rushing to the nearest classroom. He told lawmakers recently that he was in the Bellamy Building.
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SIMON MONTELEONE: And when I entered that room, a discovery that no one ever wants to make when they're hiding from an active shooter was made that day. The doors inside Bellamy refused to lock.
MCCARTHY: Monteleone says he and other students took charge, working quickly turning off the lights and using chairs to build a barricade.
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MONTELEONE: And in my case, our door was lucky 'cause it opened inwards. But in many cases across Bellamy, the doors open outwards and the barricades would be rendered useless.
MCCARTHY: The students are now asking for locks in classrooms that professors can trigger. They want university staff and faculty to get active-shooter training after students say some professors were unsure about what to do and students stepped in. They're also pushing for firearm reforms, like expanding safe storage requirements.
CALEB MILLER: He got it from his parent who's an officer. Like, you can't even avoid that anyway.
MCCARTHY: That's FSU student Caleb Miller talking about the 20-year-old alleged gunman whose stepmother is a sheriff's deputy. Police say he used her old service weapon in the shooting. Miller says he's not sure what would make him feel safer on campus, but he does want to see a change. He supports gun reform, but also understands why some of his classmates have said they'd like to carry their guns on campus.
MILLER: I mean, I'm sure if you had a responsible kid with a gun and you're in a class and that class suddenly gets shot up, you'd be happy that that kid has a gun and is willing to use it in order for the greater good of all of his fellow students.
MCCARTHY: On the other hand, he says...
MILLER: I could see how someone would be scared that this kid has a gun and at any second he could do something about it. So it's like - it's really - no. Like, I don't know. Like, it - there's too many different outcomes to each situation.
MCCARTHY: This semester is wrapping up at FSU. The campus is eerily quiet as students were given choices. They could skip their finals and get the grade they had before the day of the shooting or continue classes online. The alleged gunman has not yet been charged and remains in the hospital after being shot by police.
For NPR News, I'm Regan McCarthy in Tallahassee.
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