It started with Columbine, then Sandy Hook, then Marjory Stoneman Douglas,  then Robb Elementary school. Will it ever come to an end? One thing they all have in common is the country they’ve all occurred in. It seems that every year we must bear a moment of silence to pay our respects to innocent children who wanted nothing more than an education.

I’ve always wondered why in the United States we constantly conduct school shooting drills. The Principal goes on the loudspeaker and announces, “Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown!” Our teacher locks the door and instructs us to the farthest corner where we silence our phones. If one person makes the slightest noise, it will jeopardize our lives within seconds. Hall monitors pull at the door handles to mimic a shooter and make sure we don’t give a reaction.

Even though it’s a drill that we’ve been conducting since kindergarten, the fear never lessens because at any moment this could be our reality.

Research by CNN identified 288 school shootings between January 2009 and May 2018 in the U.S. By comparison, Canada and France each had two, Germany had one, and Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom had none. Based on those numbers, the U.S. had 57 times more school shootings in that period than the other 7 countries combined. Why is it that the United States is the leading country worldwide for school shootings?

Some say it’s mental health issues. Others say it’s the video games that we allow our children to play. According to a 2017 New York Times article, “If mental health made the difference, then data would show that Americans have more mental health problems than people in other countries with fewer mass shootings. But the mental health care spending rate in the United States, the number of mental health professionals per capita, and the rate of severe mental disorders are all in line with those of other wealthy countries.”

The real reason is the easily accessible guns this nation provides. In the United States, you can buy a gun as young as 18. However, to rent a car you must be 25, to book most hotel rooms you must be 21, and to become an Uber driver you must be 21. A gun is far more dangerous, but it’s so easily attainable in the United States and that’s the problem.

“After Britain had a mass shooting in 1987, the country instituted strict gun control laws,” the New York Times said. “So did Australia after a 1996 shooting. But the United States has repeatedly faced the same calculus and determined that relatively unregulated gun ownership is worth the cost to society.”

As a country, we need stricter gun control laws to ensure we are keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them in the first place. Also, there should be required background checks on all gun sales to prevent selling firearms to prohibited purchasers. We know the steps we need to take to help end this issue of gun violence, whether it be inside a school building or elsewhere.

When will the change come? If millions of innocent Americans losing their lives isn’t enough to realize now is the time, then what is?

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