I never thought that I'd ever have to fear for my life at a place as safe, carefree and welcoming as a concert.

Stepping into venues, I feel better there than anywhere else. I always said to myself, I’m at home. I'm ready for some good music. I’m ready to see my favorite artists. I’m ready to have an amazing time with my friends. It’s a feeling I'm always looking forward to.

Correction: it’s a feeling that I always looked forward to. Fear and paranoia have taken away my happiness and carefree lifestyle.

At the end of May, there was a shooting at a T.I. concert at Irving Plaza in New York. Irving Plaza is one of my favorite venues - I’ve been to three shows there in the past few months. It’s terrifying to think that something so dangerous happened somewhere I feel so safe. I run to concerts knowing that I can enjoy myself and be carefree, but when something like this happens, it’s hard to not give a crap about my own safety. It’s hard to enjoy myself when I actually have to think about what to do if I hear gunshots go off in an extremely crowded place.

At the T.I. concert, the shooting occurred in the green room. That’s right, it occurred in the hardest room to get into. For those who don’t know, the only people who really have access to the green room are the people who are playing the show or working directly with the performers.

Someone managed to get a gun into the green room. Imagine how much easier it would’ve been to sneak a gun anywhere else in the venue, like the 1,000+ standing room crowd. It’s disgusting to think about and it scares me to know that it actually is possible to sneak a weapon into a concert venue when I've never been allowed to bring a water bottle in. Everyone goes through a thorough bag check, a pretty invasive pat-down and a metal detector check at Irving Plaza and you're telling me a gun got past that?

It’s even scarier when you realize that the gun was brought to the venue to kill people. One person died and three were wounded at the show that night.

The bullet could’ve hit anyone. It could’ve hit you. It hit Christina Grimmie. It hit all those beautiful, innocent individuals at the Pulse nightclub shooting. We’re out here trying to have a good time, but there are unfortunately too many people in the world who use their guns for assault instead of protection, which brings us to this question: do we need more gun control?

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say yes, we do. I was recently at a Pierce The Veil show at Irving Plaza just weeks after the T.I. shooting. I talked to the frontman of one of the openers, Brent Walsh from I The Mighty, and he said to me, “I think I’m in the camp with most other Americans who believe that we can’t keep having the NRA buy politicians out of gun reform talk, because there are more shootings in America than there are days of the year and that number is exponentially climbing. When someone who’s a known ISIS affiliate or sympathizer has the ability to walk in and buy a semi-automatic rifle, I think it’s pretty apparent that we have lots of gun issues that need to be reformed.”

The band had to sit down with their manager and talk about what to do if there’s an active shooter in the venue.

You know what’s sad? The fact that we even have to have a conversation about gun violence at concerts. Last time I checked, concerts are supposed to be a safe haven for people who just want to get away from the weight of the world for a few hours. It’s a time to forget about all the worries in life and just let loose and have fun in the presence of your favorite people, whether it’s the artists performing or the friends you came to the show with.