At the height of the Cold War, every student knew what to do if they saw a blinding flash of light: “duck and cover”. Crouch beneath your desk, lock your hands behind your neck to avoid injury, lie still, and wait. Bert the Turtle, an absurd character created by the Department of Defense, cheerily retreated into his shell every time he was surprised to illustrate the technique to the smallest of children.

The pointless drills of the 50s are gone. Today, students hide under their desks not to avoid the distant flash of a nuclear bomb, but to escape the muzzle flash of an AK-47 assault rifle. Today, we don’t “duck and cover;” we “run, hide, and defend.” Children from preschool to college know that in case an aggressive gunman sets foot on campus, they must either evacuate, lock themselves in a room and remain silent, or prepare to fight for their lives.

When the Upper School intruder drill took place a few months ago, I sat in my AP Physics C class; like clockwork, we overturned desks, covered up windows, and barricaded the locked doors. The mood was calm; we read books and did homework crouching under the lab counter. Yet we had fortified to guard against the murderous rampage of a gunman.

Sadly, a history of gun violence, from the Columbine to Sandy Hook, renders these drills necessary. According to Newsweek, over 134 mass shootings occurred in the period from 2009 to 2015, a systemic crisis far deadlier than any medical epidemic. Each side of the debate has a pet solution, from banning firearms altogether (as France has done) or arming teachers to defend themselves. For years, the NRA has repeatedly used the straw-man argument that the government is “coming for citizens’ guns.” Save for the recent executive actions from the White House expanding background checks, few changes have been made.

With every passing day, the death toll from gun-related violence will only increase. No student should have to prepare for a threat of looming death; whether by changes in mental health care, aggressive gun control, or even “smart firearms” that only allow their owners to fire them, we need a reality where gun violence drills in schools are as irrelevant as the “duck and cover” drills of the Cold War.

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on Jan. 27, 2015.