Yesterday's shooting in Las Vegas had a bigger impact on me than I realized. I wanted to cry, point fingers, and be angry. I realized, though, that none of that was productive. If we want to change the world, we have to hold our heads up.

Fifty eight people are dead at the hands of gun violence. That is fifty eight funerals that have to be planned, fifty eight grieving families, and fifty eight people with potential are no longer on the face of this earth. So much can be replaced, but lives are not one of them.

I am shocked at the government's response to the shooting. Gun violence is an issue. It is no longer an issue of Republican vs Democrat. If you can look the families of those killed in the eye and say that there is not a gun problem, then so be it. But in those eyes, you will see pain that will never go away.

The argument that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is irrelevant in the present moment. When the Founding Fathers wrote the "right to bear arms" clause in the Constitution, semiautomatic weapons were not a thing. As a matter of fact, they were shooting musket balls. Machine guns can kill three peopel in just a few seconds. While it is important that we have that type of gun in the military, civilians should not be able to get them.

I hate when people think that gun control involves taking away guns. That's not it at all. Gun control means that people like this shooter would not be able to get them as they choose. Our president has already dismissed real life Nazis. What comes next?

I love to quote Hillary Clinton's concession speech, especially when she says, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart." It's true. Losing persistence makes us lose hope. Right now, it is impossible to persist if we decide to concede. We cannot, and will not concede when we talk about gun issues. Concession, in this case, is a form of laziness. We can't grow weary, we must persist.

Speculation has risen as to why the culprit did it. We will never know the reasoning behind it, which is unfortunate. However, the motive is not important. What matters is that this man was able to get a gun whose bullets can kill three people before stopping. The one thing that can be certain, however, is that it was not because of resistance to the NRA or Trump. (I'm talking to you, Pat Robertson.)

I would have thought that Sandy Hook would have been enough to wake people up. Why it wasn't is beyond my method of capable thinking. Mass shootings have to stop. If they don't, more lives will be lost at the hands of guns. It's something we cannot afford to have happen. The dreamers and leaders of tomorrow depend upon our persistence to change the way things are.