Over a week after a shooting on the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall on April 19 that injured five people, including three University of Iowa students, Bridge Iowa, a UI student organization created to foster social and political campus discourse, hosted a discussion on experiences during the shooting, police presence, and gun laws in the Iowa Memorial Union on April 29. 

The seven-student group was mediated by UI third-year and Bridge President Kasey Ludlow, who presented several questions for discussion, including, “What was your initial reaction to the shooting?”, “Do the police need a larger presence downtown?”, and “Do you believe Iowa’s gun laws are effective?” 

RELATED: Ped Mall shooting draws attention to Iowa gun laws, crime rates

Ludlow said his initial reaction to the shooting was, like many students, delayed. He saw the Hawk Alert in the early morning on April 19, but did not fully understand it until the next morning. 

“I was very confused at first, and I didn’t realize until morning that was a serious thing,” Ludlow said. 

UI third-year student Franklin Pastorino, who attended the event, was on the Ped Mall during the shooting and recalled the shock he and his friends felt during the shooting. 

“I didn’t think that it was actual shots,” he said. “And, I didn’t think that until I saw people running, and then ran with them in the opposite direction. It was like, I don’t know, you kind of didn’t expect that to happen here.”

Pastorino said a large group of students ran toward the Iowa City Public Library, including himself, at which point he separated from one of his sisters as Iowa City Police Department vehicles were arriving, a moment that he described as “overwhelming.” 

Ludlow asked the group’s thoughts on whether the city of Iowa City or the UI could do more to prevent similar incidents in the future, and what could be done in response.

UI second-year student Kaitlyn Schmidt said Iowa City’s nightlife is generally safe, but that some police presence in downtown would mitigate potential issues. 

“There’s been large crowds, especially where there’s the food truck carts,” Schmidt said. “It’s not like no one’s there, and so, stuff like this shouldn’t happen. But also, it’s a large area, so maybe having patrol in that area wouldn’t be terrible.”

The UI Police Department announced on April 22 that it would provide four additional officers to help patrol in the Ped Mall. 

The conversation shifted to gun rights and legislation, first looking at the Second Amendment before honing in on firearm laws in Iowa. 

Ludlow asked the group their thoughts on the application of the Second Amendment in the modern day, comparing how different weapons technology is in 2026 versus when the amendment was written. 

Pastorino said the U.S., as a culture that endorses gun ownership, creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where violence feels like a natural resolution to problems between individuals in society. 

“There’s also just a portion of that is also just general inequality, because, with these encounters of violence, whether that be with guns, with fighting, whatever weapon exists, it’s usually based on, you usually think of it as like power, like, they want to have power,” he said. 

Ludlow said certain applications of the Second Amendment are unrealistic, and the idea that weapons are necessary to overthrow a tyrannical government is outdated. 

He projected onto a screen a chart comparing factors of gun purchases and ownership between states that are strict with their legislation, such as California, versus those with looser laws, like Texas or Florida. 

Schmidt said while she understands stand your ground laws, she agrees with states like California, which employ waiting periods after purchasing handguns. Iowa has no such restriction. 

Stand your ground laws are a subset of legislation that varies from state to state, stating individuals in certain situations have a right to defend themselves by using deadly force, including gun use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

“If you’re thinking about owning a gun for a good reason, you shouldn’t need it within 10 days,” Schmidt said. 

She said efforts by the Trump administration to limit the proliferation of firearms in the U.S. by removing illegal immigrants would be better used to monitor and control firearm purchases and usage to attack the problem’s real root. 

“So maybe we should stop terrorizing people and put that money into, you know, better endeavors to actually make the country safer, instead of just racist,” she said.