After the Valentine's Day Shooting on February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as well as every shooting before this one, I've seen so many posts about the victims and the families, wishing them well and asking their friends to send thoughts and prayers, myself included.

The important thing to know is that well wishes can't be the only thing that you do. Nothing happens because people have you in their thoughts. You need to take a stand and reach out.

We as a nation have a responsibility to take precautions to prevent these horrible tragedies from happening, and unfortunately, people are growing complacent. So many people have decided that nothing can be done to prevent this, but that is only true if no one tries to accomplish anything.

We need to reach out to our congressmen, our senators, and even our president. Reach out to everyone, let them know we are done being complacent when it comes to our safety. We need some form of gun control, be it limiting the selection of firearms we sell to the public, or stricter background checks on those attempting to purchase firearms, or whatever other suggestions you might have.

The time for silence is over. We as a nation need to take a stand for our future generations because the kids are going to be our future, and if they keep getting shot at by idiots with guns, how the hell are they supposed to change the world?

While my heart goes out to the families of the Parkland community, I want to send more than positive thoughts to them. I want to send hope. Hope for a change, and hope that this incident is the last school shooting we are going to see.

To the people of Parkland, Florida, we here at the Eastern Odyssey wish you the best of luck in attempting to recover from the trauma you have faced, and we hope that this horrible event will not have been in vain.

If you are confused about who your representatives are, use https://openstates.org/ this link and enter your address to find out who they are and how you should reach out to them.