Editorial: Truth is kids need to be safe from gun violence

Marquis Campbell should not be dead.

Campbell, 15, of Pittsburgh was shot at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday in a school van where he sat, waiting to go home from Oliver Citywide Academy in Marshall-Shadeland.

As a society, there is often an attempt to make sense of tragedies by blaming the victims. People try to fool themselves into feeling safe by imagining a scenario where the person harmed is so very different that what happened might make sense. But it’s a flawed game people play.

A child does not deserve to be fatally shot sitting outside of school, in a van, waiting to go home. It should never need editorialization. It is simply, painfully true.

We don’t need to have a reason to empathize with Marquis. The fact that he was just a kid at school should be enough. But in case it’s not, we have stories from his teachers that break the heart.

“He loved school, and he was so happy today to be back after the long weekend and school covid closure,” interim Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Wayne Walters passed on from the educators who saw Marquis daily. “His sense of humor was infectious.”

Gun crimes are up in Allegheny County. So are the deaths of young people. Marquis is not the only 15-year-old to have died in the past year, and that is a tragedy that should be avoidable. But, apparently, it is not.

County data show there were no victims 14 or younger in January through October 2021. But for the demographic of 15 to 24 years old, the numbers spike. It is the age group most likely to die.

But it doesn’t change the fact that a child — and anyone who has a 15-year-old can attest that, no matter how tall or gangly, they are absolutely still children — should be safe at school. Safe outside of school. Safe in the van that takes them home.

This is not just opinion. It’s truth.