I try my best not to get involved with crowds and protests, mostly because I don’t like being suffocatingly close to a lot of people, but also because events like those are never fully about their supposed cause. I would be honored to do my part to stop school shootings, but I don’t think blaming guns is the answer.

To be fair, I don’t want to place the blame on anyone. But, whosever “fault” this is, we now have the chance to make a change. You might think that you’ve heard this a million times before, but listening and being there for people could, at the very least, make a difference.

This doesn’t mean that a single conversation, or even a friendship, will erase any possibility of tragedies from happening. But, it’s a start.

What isn’t going to help though, is the desire for a division of our country. It was hard to hear the chants of “vote them out” from a mass of angry people. The truth is, the people who rally for these causes have their own agenda. It is completely possible, and likely, that they believe in the cause as well, but you can protest murder without a sign that says, “Go Away NRA.”

The deflection of blame onto a company or political party that you don’t like or support doesn’t help in the end. Human-to-human here, how dare you say and/or write that “the Republicans thought they were pro-life.” Are you actually implying that I’m OK with innocent people dying? Children dying?

I am fully supportive of having a secure and safe environment for learning. As a student myself, it’s of the highest importance to me. So why can’t we work together to find a reasonable solution without turning a cause we can all agree on into a Conservation bashing.

Why is it that I only saw signs that were anti-gun and anti-NRA? I understand and support the idea of stricter gun laws, but I also think that current laws should be better enforced.

Yes, it is too easy for people to get their hands on a gun. But we need to take a second and ask ourselves: Why do shooters feel that they need or want the gun in the first place?

Healthy people don’t just kill people because they can.

I was disappointed in what I saw at the march. I should’ve seen at least the same amount of signs about anti-bully and the importance of mental health as I saw anti-gun signs. The event I went to felt more like a breeding ground for hatred than a symbol of positive change.

When bad things happen, you want something to blame, but in the long run, it doesn’t help. Stop claiming that guns are bad, cause they are just objects, tools. They don’t have the capability to be bad. As much as you might not want to hear it, guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

We need to stop pulling the nation apart and placing blame. It’s vital that we hold ourselves accountable for the realities of our country and society, and give more importance to understanding mental illness, being compassionate, and actually listening to each other.