The year 2017 has brought a crucial amount of spotlight on the gun control laws and how we choose to change them. This issue has been brought into the limelight due to the fact that, according to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 377 mass shootings alone in the year 2017.

Not to mention that three of them have been marked as the “deadliest mass shooting in American history.” Yes, three, have been considered the deadliest until the next one showed it up. These include the shooting in Orlando, Las Vegas, and the most recent in Sutherland Springs, all within the past 17 months.

You’d think that by now we would have noticed a serious and horrifying problem considering the 1999 Columbine shooting, which killed 12 innocent people, was once on top of the list of “Top Ten Deadliest Shootings in America.” However, it is now been pushed further and further down on the list, that it isn’t even on it anymore.

Maybe people don’t want to realize that we have a problem, but pushing it away clearly hasn’t worked. My purpose in writing this is to put things into perspective and hopefully change the minds of some people. If hundreds of headlines on the news don’t sway your opinion, then maybe cold hard facts will.

Starting with the most recent, November 5, 2017, the lives of 26 human beings were swept away from them at a church in Sutherland Springs, a place where they thought they would be protected.

October 1, 2017, the lives of 58 innocent Americans were selfishly taken away at a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.

June 12, 2016, in Orlando Florida, 49 human beings were shot and killed at a nightclub, a place where they were supposed to be having fun.

December 14, 2012, the one that shattered our hearts, 20 children, between the ages 6 and 7 years-old, and 7 adults were murdered in the mass shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

Now I could sit here and list all of the tragedies that occurred, but instead, I’ll put the four that I listed into a different frame of reference.

From the four mass shootings alone, the lives of 160 Americans were lost. 160 Americans from just four tragedies. If I sat here and calculated all the lives that were lost from the 377 shootings from this year that number would at least triple.

What we need is to stop preparing for the next attack and start learning how to prevent them.