On Valentine's Day, a young, white man opened fire at Parkland High School in Florida and killed 17 innocent people, most of them children. The only condolences senators across the country could give us were their usual “thoughts and prayers.”

Instead of admitting their faults in supporting the NRA, receiving millions and millions of dollars from the NRA and, ultimately, doing nothing with the power that they have to stop this nonsense.

Only four months ago, the Las Vegas shooting happened. The Texas Baptist church shooting was three short months ago. Already in 2018, there have been 6 shootings on school grounds.

So the question still begs, when does this madness stops? Well, I’ll tell you.

This can stop when senators actually formulate a plan for gun control. This can stop when limitations are put into action and gun sellers are actually forced into compliance. This can stop by providing actual, affordable treatment toward those suffering with mental illness.

The point of the matter is that there are a multitude of tangible solutions to such a disturbing problem. Our thoughts and prayers aren’t working. Instead, we must confront this issue head-on- something America should have done a long time ago.

Something that should have already been taken care of when I was an infant in 1999, when one of the most infamous school shootings occurred: Columbine.

However, unfortunately, nothing was done after that, which has only led us to where we are now.

A place where children have to hide in their classrooms from killers. A place where schools really have to participate in lockdown drills for when the next Sandy Hook or Virginia Tech inevitably happens. A place where parents are wary of sending their children to school, because they fear that they may never walk out of the building again.

It is frustrating to still see so many people defending guns that are used in modern warfare to be used in everyday life. In almost every mass shooting in recent history, an AR-15 assault rifle has been used.

Whoever chooses not to see this insidious pattern is someone who would rather let their children die than pursue legal change to protect them.

Along with that, far-right Republicans are even going so far to claim that the survivors of the shooting are really "crisis actors." I can not believe that our country is so divided that people have to stoop so low to assume that the tragedies our childrenhave to face aren't real, instead of admitting the problems that our society has.

And yes, I do realize that guns don't kill people, people kill people. But, if you honestly think that those of us advocating for gun control believe that guns are the sole problem, then you're not paying attention to our cries for action.

Gun control means enabling restrictions so people with a history of mental illness cannot obtain deadly weapons. Gun control is ensuring that people who have been convicted of domestic violence or other criminal behavior don't have access to weapons of warfare. Gun control protects many other countries from people who want to wreck havoc on innocent children for no reason.

I've written angry, frustrated articles on mass shootings in America too many times. But, I'm sure within a month from now I'll have to write another because of course, nothing will change.