When you wake up and go to school every day, you should feel safe. When you go out to the movies, you should feel safe. When you walk outside of your house, you should feel safe.

So, let me ask you: where is it that you feel the safest? Because those places of safety seem to be dwindling in the world we live in today.

Thinking of those kids and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida makes me sick to my stomach. There should be no reason for a 19-year-old, or any person for that matter, to have an automatic rifle.

It hurts my heart that another school has gone through a horrific tragedy.

The scary part is that there have been so many tragic events that these things don’t even come as a shock to us anymore. We are not even three months into the new year and there have been 18 instances of school shootings.

That’s roughly three school shootings a week. That is more than messed up.

Something needs to change. It shouldn’t be so easy for someone to be able to purchase a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. People do have a right to own guns, but to have such an extreme weapon in your household is just not necessary.

It also shouldn’t be so easy for people to get it like it was for Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the Florida shooting.

We need to do better.

Try your hardest to understand one another’s viewpoints and opinions, even if they differ from your own. We need to stand together in order to make a difference in this country. We need to put an end to the tragedy.

Remember to give the world the best that you have and the best will come back to you. Keep your heads up, America. I promise, better days are coming from these tragic times.

Stay hopeful, stay strong, and keep fighting for what’s right. Let this disaster in Florida be the last.