In my twenty years of living, never has there been a more controversial topic thrown on the table than the idea of gun control and gun reform. From the Columbine High School shooting in April of '99, to the shooting in Pennsylvania, to the most recent at Thousand Oaks where twelve lives were taken, the shooter taking his own life when he was finished committing this heinous crime.

It's unfortunate that in today's society, people like you and me, have grown up with mass shootings being in the norm. I don't think there hasn't been a year where a horrible mass shooting has occurred. Just in 2018 alone, we've had over three hundred mass shootings. Be reminded, there are 365 days in a year, so that's a mass shooting almost every day. A mass shooting is defined as "The killing of 3 or more people", but there really isn't a right or wrong definition when it comes to defining what a mass shooting is, all we should be aware of, is that this happening way too frequently to the point where it's popping up every day in mainstream media and news.

When I was taking a look at some of the deadliest mass shootings in our country, it shocked me to see that Wisconsin was on there not once, but four times. It makes me fear for the future if our federal government isn't going to do something about gun control.

Probably some of the most deadliest shootings were Columbine High School, the shooting during a premiere of Batman at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado where twelve were killed and 58 were injured, the shooting in Fort Hood, Texas in which 13 were killed and 32 were injured, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in which 27 innocent lives including those of children were taken, the shooting at Pulse, in which 49 where killed and 58 were injured, and the shooting over a year ago in Las Vegas during a music festival were over 50 people died and over 500 were injured.

Why do I bring these significant shootings up? Well, they're the ones people know more information about. With shootings occurring every day, it becomes difficult for news outlets to report on every single mass shooting. Their whole broadcast would have to be dedicated to discussing the mass shootings that occurred within the week.

I also bring those up since the shooters were deemed, "mentally ill" at the time of committing the shooting, so that then gives people the assumption that people who have a mental illness either diagnosed, or undiagnosed and isn't discovered until after the shooting that they are just thinking about causing danger to themselves and others. Our own president has even blamed gun violence on mentally ill people, which was a huge slander and a blow to his character. It's wrong to automatically assume that all people with a mental illness are a danger, as some people with mental illnesses don't have these horrible, premeditated actions.

I think that more people need to be talking about this issue of gun control and ways we can make stricter guidelines when it comes to who can obtain a firearm and what the qualifications are to purchasing one. Our presidents have tried with the stricter background checks, but that doesn't mean every state is going to reinforce that. The other problem is those who are for bearing arms are fearing that those on the side of wanting stricter gun control are going to take away their right completely.

That isn't the case; we aren't trying to take away your second amendment right, we're trying to make it harder for people to obtain assault rifles just to own for shits and giggles, because when we look at the story of the Parkland shooting, the perpetrator had weapons, and his parents had locked them up and had the key, but he obtained the key and took an AR-15 to campus and opened fire. I don't think it's even the slightest bit of acceptable to allow the kid to even have open access to an assault weapon? Yes, the kid did have a disastrous childhood with his mother dying, him going into foster care, and being bullied at school, But it doesn't give him an excuse to go on campus with a deadly weapon and take lives.

It shouldn't be standard protocol in schools to have lockdown drills frequently. Up until I was in 8th grade, which was around the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, we never had to practice the situation that a perpetrator with intentions to hurt someone was in the building. After Sandy Hook, the lockdown drills became more frequent. Evacuation drills for bomb threats became more frequent, and kids started fearing going to school because what if they didn't come home that day? It shouldn't be something a child has to worry about, which is why we need to start talking about this more and bring up gun control and how we can make gun reform possible. It's time to stop brushing it under the rug.