Even after #neveragain flooded social media, even after National Walkout Day that took place this April 20th, even after we demanded change on both the political left and the political right, we still mourned the deaths of 10 students and teachers in addition to 10 others who were wounded in Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas on May 18, 2018.

We continuously chanted, "Never again," yet it happened again.

Times like these worsen the politically polarized climate in this country, times when both the Left and the Right refuse to accept that their side may not have the complete solution and the other side can still make a valid point. Already, this discordance is part of the problem. It is either ban all guns or arm all teachers. It is either entirely the guns or entirely the people who can motivate the perpetrator to shoot. How dare we unconditionally give up our constitutional right to bear arms? How dare we allow fatal weapons to fall into the hands of any civilians?

Yes, I do believe guns are part of the problem.

In Santa Fe, suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis accessed his father's shotgun and .38 revolver, both of which were purchased legally. Nikolas Cruz legally purchased a gun for the Parkland shooting. Stephen Paddock passed all background checks when purchasing a gun for the Las Vegas mass killing. The trend suggests that guns are too easy to obtain and consequently fall into the wrong hands. And more guns do not necessarily solve this issue, considering an increased likelihood that the wrong people will possess such guns.

No, I do not believe it is practical nor possible to ban all guns.

The Second Amendment still establishes guns as a mode of protection if necessary. And if the right people own guns, they can defend themselves. We just need to make sure the right people are actually the right people, which would entail stricter background checks to ensure safety. And such shootings occurred in designated "gun-free zones," yet people will always be able to finesse and bend the rules, making it nearly impossible to get rid of guns completely.

Above all, America has a cultural crisis.

Guns have existed in America for centuries, yet only within the last two decades has this appalling trend of mass shootings started, beginning with the Columbine shooting in April of 1999. Regardless of all the ways we will attempt to "solve" the issue, these events still occur. This trend suggests a deeper shift, a shift not in laws or regulations but in American culture.

Everything has become too trivialized.

We trivialize mental illness. No, we cannot see anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder, but we can see the tragic effects when a sufferer gets a hold of a gun. Just because we cannot see an unstable mind with violent thoughts does not mean that it isn't there. Mental illness is not merely the "excuse" that we believe it is; it is real and has cost the lives of far too many victims.

We trivialize the act of killing. At too young of an age, we recognize the idea that killing is "fun." We take pleasure in killing all of our enemies in Fortnite because causing more deaths makes us successful. Shooting more enemies advances us in the game. Too early, we suddenly hold this belief that we succeed by shooting others--a belief that continues when an actual gun is in our hands.

We trivialize the importance of other people. Over time, we have cultivated this selfishness where we need to have the whole world at our fingertips and receive immediate gratification of what we want. We have this lack of regard for others, their lives, and their worth. If someone bothers us, we feel this need to get rid of them without acknowledging their value in this world. We only have a regard for our own desires that we wish to fulfill so automatically--as automatically as a weapon can end the lives of so many.

When we look at mass shootings as a partisan issue, we have solutions that will not entirely stop this awful trend. We need to take a step back and see what is distinct about our culture. There are many different correlations between gun laws and rates of mass shootings across the world but the real difference in our culture is this selfishness, this idea of focusing purely on the immediacy of fulfilling our own desires and failing to recognize the values of other lives. Every life holds a deep inherent value and does not deserve anything to happen to it "immediately."

My heart goes out to all of the victims of these mass shootings and their families.