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The Powerful Voice of the 'Mass Shooting Generation'

The most reason shootings have sparked a huge conversation on campuses today. Students all over the nation have said, "never again" to the violence. They have been pinged as the "school shooting generation."

BEAUMONT — The first school shooting that truly lodged itself in our memories was Columbine, in 1999, when two students wearing trench coats fatally shot 13 of their classmates. At the time, it was the deadliest high school shooting but that has sadly changed and now it's not even in the top 10.

In 1966 a former US Marine killed 16 and wounded at least 30 at the University of Texas while shooting from a tower. The shooter had also killed his mother and wife earlier in the day.

A 16-year-old opened fire at Red Lake Highschool in Red Lake, Minnesota back in 2005. He killed his grandfather and another adult, five students, a teacher and a security officer before killing himself.

In 2007, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student went on a shooting spree killing 32 people on campus.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting rocked the small community of Newtown in Connecticut. A 20-year-old killed twenty children,ages six and seven, 6 staff members of the school and his mother.

In 2015, a gunman shot and killed nine people and injured nine others at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon.

Twenty-seven students and staff have been killed in 2018 alone. 17 of those students and adults were killed in Parkland, FL when a 19-year-old opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Highschool. The other 10 were killed when a 17-year-old walked into an art class and began firing at Sante Fe High School in Sante Fe, TX.

The most reason shootings have sparked a huge conversation on campuses today. Students all over the nation have said, "never again" to the violence. They have been pinged as the "school shooting generation."

Parents, teachers and school administrators may be surprised to hear what the students think when asked the questions: Do they feel safe while at school? What are the chances of a shooting happening at their campus? Do they believe there is "hope" for the future?

12News invited nine students from area schools to watch a school shooting report and have a discussion following. The students attend Beaumont United, Beaumont West Brook, Hamshire Fannett and Kelly High Schools.

Below is the whole conversation, raw and unedited.

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