It was only a few weeks ago that news of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in United States history, rocked America. With 50 dead and another 53 injured, the event forced many Americans to finally question: is the Second Amendment doing us more harm than good?

The Orlando shooting came right on the heels of the murder of singer Christina Grimmie, who was killed in a murder-suicide as she was signing autographs after one of her concerts, also in Florida. Her murderer, Kevin Loibl, was found to have possessed two guns, both of which he obtained legally — just three days before he shot and killed Ms. Grimmie.

And that’s not all. In the two days after the Orlando attack, there were more than 250 different shootings across the United States, over 60 of which were deadly. We’re about 175 days into the year, so that’s more shootings than days since New Year’s — in just two days.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, the United States has had a total number of 25,000 incidents in 2016 alone. 150 of those have been mass shootings, 1,092 accidental shootings and 711 for defensive use. There have been 155 incidents where an officer was shot and killed, and 387 incidents where the perpetrator was shot or killed. Guns have killed 6,412 people this year and injured another 13,214. 1,662 of those deaths and injuries were children under the age of seventeen. In just 175 days.

And yet, just this past week, the Senate voted down four different gun control proposals from both Democrats and Republicans. This is despite the fact that around 80 percent of the American population wants stronger gun control laws, namely laws that make it more difficult (and hopefully impossible) for potentially dangerous people to legally obtain a gun. And even though 33 percent of Americans believe that background checks would be the most effective measure, the Senate voted down not one, but two different amendments that would expand background checks for obtaining a gun.

This isn’t the first time that the Senate has watched a mass shooting occur and done nothing to prevent future measures. Just four years ago, America watched a young man gun down children at an elementary school. 20 different children aged 6 and 7 were murdered by Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old with a gun. America watched children be brutally murdered because of a gun, and we did nothing.

But Orlando has brought the debate over the Second Amendment into an even brighter light, both startling and forcing people into action. The attack on the Pulse nightclub was not just an attack- it was a hate crime against the LGBT community, an act of terror. And the fact that America is continuing to ignore the issue of gun violence, all in the name of a constitutional amendment written hundreds of years ago, when guns were not automatic rifles and could not be stored in the pocket of your jeans, is absolutely absurd to me.

I have experienced gun violence on a personal level twice. Once, when I was a freshman in high school and I was waiting outside with my friends in the carpool line to be picked up. Our carpool took place outside on a busy street, so people were usually walking past and talking to our teachers, who are well known around Charleston. So when 28-year old Alice Boland walked up in a hot pink puffer-coat (despite the warm Spring weather) and began to talk to our head of school, we thought nothing of it. We hardly even looked at her. Until she began to threaten our teachers, pulling a gun out of her pocket, and pointing it around at all of our feet.

The rest of that afternoon is a blur: being ordered back inside the gates, hiding in the locker room with my friends, the call from school asking my mom if I would speak to the FBI about the incident. Thankfully, no one was hurt that day, but that isn’t for lack of trying. Ms. Boland was charged with attempted murder; according to authorities, the only thing that stopped her from going through with it was that she didn’t know how to turn the safety off of the gun. And despite a history of mental illness, Ms. Boland appeared to have obtained the gun legally.

The second time gun violence shook my hometown of Charleston, SC was this past summer, when 22-year old Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people at the Mother Emanuel Church. He had sat with those nine people, who welcomed him into their community, and then murdered them. It was more than a tragedy; it was an unspeakable, horrible event that rocked both Charleston and America, bringing my city together to unite in a search for peace. People across the country mourned for the loss of 9 innocent, beautiful people, killed while at church. Killed for being good people. And once again, the Senate did nothing.

But I very much hope that we can no longer ignore the issue this time. That we can no longer excuse these crimes in the name of an outdated, uncouth amendment. The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” (Legal Information Institute). For starters, nowhere does the Amendment directly state that the right to bear arms is an individual right, nor does the clause create an individual constitutional right allowing people to legally keep and bear arms. And most of all, implementing gun control laws wouldn’t, as many people seem to believe, abolish the second amendment. The laws that many people desire don’t ban guns- they simply make them more difficult to obtain.

You won’t lose your Second Amendment by implementing gun control laws; instead, you will be able to protect yourself from someone legally in possession of a gun, someone who may not even be in possession of their mental health. It’s all too easy to sit back and think that these kinds of things happen to other people. I used to do the same thing. Until I saw the effects of gun violence first hand and knew I couldn’t ignore the issue anymore. Until I decided to open my eyes and realize that the way we interpret the Second Amendment benefits no one.

And for those who think that gun control laws won’t be effective: just take a look at Australia. In 1997, following the murder of 35 people in an Australian cafe, they implemented a law banning certain semi-automatic weapons and pump-action weapons and forced current owners to sell them back to the government. And they haven’t had a single mass shooting since.