Attention, graduating seniors of 2022. Roughly 18 years ago, in 2004, you were just coming into this world.
Notably there were only nine school shootings in the country that year, one of which was an accidental discharge of a firearm from a woman’s purse. Only nine students were injured on campus while three were killed.
This year, through May, there have been 27 school shootings. Twenty-seven people were killed and 56 injured.
Chances are, Class of ‘22, your grew up regularly participating in active shooter drills on campus while your parents may have had passing familiarity with them. (Certainly the really old people, like me, only had to worry about fire and earthquake drills)
Former President Ronald Reagan died in 2004, the year you were born. He is the president who survived the 1981 assassination attempt by gunman John Hinckley Jr.
It was that attempt to kill a president that prompted passage of significant gun legislation. The Brady Handgun Violence and Prevention Act is what led to background checks and waiting periods for would-be gun owners.
Eighteen years ago, Mark Zuckerberg unleashed Facebook on the world, the social media platform that deepened social connections by offering conspiracy theories, rumors and misinformation a place to fester alongside pictures of grandiose vacations and too-perfect lives.
Speaking of conspiracy theories, the CIA in 2004 admitted there were no weapons of mass destruction, an excuse used to invade Iraq.
Gasoline in California cost around $2.30 per gallon.
Then National City mayor Nick Inzunza called for a nearly year-long moratorium on checking cashing stores in the city while the Port Commission was talking about the feasibility of a South Bay desalination plant.
A brand new $63 million Chula Vista police headquarters opened later than expected in 2004 and the Chula Vista Downtown Business Association wanted to explore the removal of parking meters. They are still there.
In all probability members of the class of 1994 wondered where the time had gone as they contemplated their 10 year high school reunion the year you, Class of ‘22 came into this world. Let’s see what you’ve made of it 18 years from now.
