Kylie Ossege was a high school senior when she was shot in the chest during a mass shooting at her school in 2021. She spent two months in the hospital and physical therapy learning how to walk again.
She lived with the constant fear and anxiety that this could happen again. She tried to tell herself that it was unlikely. “The fact that it happened to you once is crazy. Like it’s never going to happen to you again. Just relax. And then it happened to me again.”
Fourteen months later, as a freshman at Michigan State University, she experienced a mass shooting again.
“I’m never going to tell myself this isn’t going to happen, because it did again,” she said. “People have to wake up and realize this is bound to happen to everyone if there’s no change.”
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S., according to 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence in America a public health crisis.
“Run, Hide, Fight: Growing up under the gun,” a documentary produced by PBS News Student Reporting Labs, features stories produced by 14 young journalists from around the country about how gun violence affects the lives of young people.
The documentary premieres Oct. 9 on PBS News YouTube, the PBS App, PBS.org, and select PBS member stations (check local listings for date and time). Watch the documentary in the player above.
“I hate that we have to beg for safety, and that we can’t feel safe. But I love that we can come together and treat each other with compassion,” Michigan State University student Maya Manuel said in an interview for the documentary.
Manuel, who survived a 2023 campus shooting, said, “I want us to take that pain and push that into change.” She co-founded Sit-Down MSU, a gun safety awareness movement on campus.
A culture change is also what college student Isabella Hipp is seeking. She grew up owning and using guns, but living through a mall shooting led her to become a member of Students Demand Action, a national youth organization to end gun violence.
“No matter your political affiliation, no matter your age, no matter your generational difference, whether you own a gun or not, the majority of America actually believes and is pro gun safety,” Hipp said, adding, “So something that gives me hope is seeing other people my age advocating for the same things.”
