I’m an intersectional feminist. I’m disabled. I have a handful of mental illness diagnoses under my belt. I’m vegan and an animal rights activist. I’m a passionate supporter of the Black Lives Matter and LGBTQIA+ movements. I am proudly pro-choice.

I am not saying that women’s, disabled persons’, people of color’s, animals’, and the LGBTQIA+ community’s rights and experiences as American citizens do not need to be improved. They do need improvement.

I am not saying that the mental healthcare system isn’t broken, and in some cases nonexistent. I am not saying that planned parenthood isn’t facing unnecessary ridicule from pro-lifers. These parts of our nation’s healthcare both need serious reconstruction, as do the affordability of healthcare and insurance.

I am not saying that there are not other, serious epidemics in this “great” nation. I’m not saying they’re not important and we should forget about them.

What I am saying, however, is that arming our teachers is not the answer.

Ignorance is not the answer.

Selling guns to people who aren’t even old enough to legally drink is not the answer.

Giving firearms to more people is not the answer to school shootings. It never should be. Is this not fighting fire with fire?

You can say that making guns illegal won’t change anything. However, that is not what I am suggesting we do (though my personal opinion may be that guns are 110% unnecessary). What I, along with many other upset Americans, am suggesting gun control.

If I am 19 years old and cannot drink, cannot rent a hotel room, and cannot rent a car, I shouldn’t be able to go out and buy a gun. Period. End point. The end. What other arguments do I really need to enforce this point?

We cannot drink until we’re 21 because our brains are still developing. But the same logic does not apply when it comes to a weapon that can cut through flesh and murder students in what they are told is a safe place. Why can my still-developing brain operate and purchase a gun, but cannot handle a wine spritzer?

Why can’t we treat guns as highly dangerous weapons? We do that for cars.

Cars are highly lethal, but highly useful, machines. When you are of age to drive a car, you take drivers education courses, have to spend several hours behind the wheel with a licensed instructor, take a written test and physical test, pay insurance in case you hit someone else with your car, have to have a car inspection every year, must renew your license every few years—okay, basically, it’s not a one step process to drive a car, right?

I’ve never bought a gun, nor do I ever intend to, however, I don’t think that the process of obtaining one is anywhere near as lengthy and sometimes expensive as obtaining a drivers license and driving a car, based on what I know about gun possession.

I also do not think that we can prevent all mentally ill people from owning guns. Not everyone with every illness is violent or at risk for a psychotic episode or whatever you want to call it, even if said illness is more predisposed to violence. That’s why every potential gun owner should have to go through a mental health analysis, whether they’ve been diagnosed with a mental illness or not.

Purchasing a gun and owning a gun should not be something that is so nonchalant.