Guns scare me. Plain and simple. I hate having to walk around the streets thinking in the back of my mind that someone could open fire on me, my friends, or my loved ones.

I want to feel safe knowing that I could be at my university, my favorite coffee shop, a movie theater, or even a nightclub without having to worry about getting shot. That’s a pretty basic thing to want.... I don't want to get shot. I'm not asking for much and it’s truly not complicated — it’s sitting in black and white right on the page in front of you.

Now, I want to make one thing extremely clear when talking about this matter: when I say that our country needs “stricter gun laws” I am not talking about taking guns away from any responsible gun owner. So for those of you who suddenly get anxiety and start panicking anytime a sensible person mentions “gun laws”, there is NO need to worry, honestly — and for those of you gun-owners who are so attached to your second amendment right that you refuse to see how fallacious and inhumane you are being — it’s time you took a look in the mirror and realized how disgusting you are allowing yourself — and our country — to be.

So why is it that it is so damn hard to pass legislation for stricter gun laws and better gun control in our nation’s government? Well, the answer is simple, really, it’s a little thing called “bi-partisan politics”, a type of politics that our nation’s government refuses to commit too.

Bi-partisan politics are when both sides of Congress, the Democrats and the Republicans come together and work together in order to assure all American's voices are being heard — and in order to pass successful legislation that can work for everyone. It involves a lot of compromise and a lot of teamwork, two things that our legislative branch are not very good at.

Now let's put things into perspective for you all — during his time as President of the United States, Barack Obama has had to give 16, yes you read that number correctly, sixteen mass shooting addresses. These addresses have covered attacks like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in which a 20-year-old mentally unstable man shot and killed 20 children between the ages of six and seven years old, as well as six adult staff members, to the most recent Pulse Nightclub shooting in which 49 LGBTAQ+ people were shot dead and 53 were injured.

— and President Obama has had to give six of these such addresses in just the past year. When will it end? When will Congress (and the NRA) come to its senses and realize that we need stricter gun laws? I understand that passing legislation is not an easy thing, but when 50 people are killed in a nightclub, or when 20 children are shot and killed at their own elementary school, passing legislation to avoid these heinous attacks should be a top priority — and to me, the fact that our nation’s government hasn’t passed such legislation shows the Republican Party’s unwillingness to change and the utter ignorance and selfishness of our nation as a whole. By allowing these horrific attacks to continue on in our country, we are giving an idea of fear to each and every citizen, and every time there is a mass shooting that reflects terribly on us Americans.

The time to change is now. Actually, if we’re being honest, the time to change was 17 years ago in 1999 when two students opened fire on their classmates and teachers at Columbine High School. Our nation was scared then and we should be even more scared now. You'd think we'd have made some sort of change within the past 17 years, but we haven't. In fact, things have been getting worse.

Gun legislation works. In a segment on The Daily Show with John Stewart back in 2013, John Oliver, a writer, and segment-interviewer on the show, discussed how since Australia’s gun legislation bills passed back in 1996 the number of mass shootings has decreased by 100% and the amount of deaths associated with guns has gone from .15 per 100,000 people in 2014 from 0.54 per 100,000 people in 1996, a decline of 72 percent. Show me where in this factual information that you still think you have an argument to NOT pass gun legislation? [Side-Note: I am fully aware of the fact that this specific gun legislation involves a 'gun buyback' and a 'gun confiscation' if you did not have the correct registration, but this legislation also made it harder for people to get guns which is the most important part.]

Also — to just throw this in, because Donald always makes me laugh — back in January of 2015 Donald Trump tweeted, "Fact — the tighter the gun laws, the more violence. The criminals will always have guns." Is that really a fact, Donald? Is it? Really? Are you forgetting Australia? Let me know.