Reporter Helen Ubiñas was one of many people who were intensely shaken by the killings at the Pulse, which is a popular gay nightclub in Orlando. So shaken, that she in fact made a choice, with an uneasy stomach, to go drive into Pittsburgh and buy a gun.

Ubiñas really had no interest in owning a gun at all, as she says in the essay that she published, but she wanted to investigate the process of purchasing a gun (more specifically this type of assault weapon), and what it would entail for an ordinary person such as herself, to obtain one.

Oh, and by the way, the gun was an AR-15 Semi Automatic rifle, the same type of weapon that was used by the Orlando shooter as well as the tragedy that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School and others very similar have been used in past shootings in the U.S.

Now, this is the part where it gets very interesting.

Ubiñas states in her essay and article about her experience that she timed and noted how long this process took her.

Guess.

Several hours? You might say. Maybe even several days to weeks before someone can be certified and legally own and use a gun or assault weapon, you think to yourself.

Try seven minutes.

Seven minutes.

That’s 420 seconds.

That’s less than it would take you to make instant Mac ‘n’ Cheese.

From the very second she handed over her driver’s license, until the end of her barely even done, back up check.

“It likely will take more time than that during the forthcoming round of vigils to respectfully read the names of the more than 100 people who were killed or injured.” (Ubiñas)

It was so easy for Ubiñas to purchase and receive an assault weapon that has been known for many different mass shootings. Even down to the amount of information she had to give and paperwork she had to fill out, which in case you were wondering comes out to about a page and a half with no concealed carry permit and no mandatory training sessions.

Let us find strength and love in this time of pain, and let us remember the value of life as we remember those who were taken too early because of our broken society. Although this tragic and heinous act brought to light many issues that are continuously hurting many, homophobia, and hate are truly the roots of it. The fact that one can walk into a store and purchase a weapon and walk out in seven minutes is us as society saying that we value that more than we value life, and the rights of a group of people who have been consistently targeted for purely existing.

Maybe gun control isn’t going to stop anymore mass shootings from happening. But it would reduce them significantly, and be effective if it meant we were actually doing something and taking action instead of just brushing it under the rug until more lives are lost so we can stand around and argue with different political parties about what we should do.

The least we can do is put more effort into stopping these senseless acts of violence and that requires a lot more than a mere seven minutes.