Imagine waking up on a seemingly normal Tuesday morning, having your morning lifeline, a cup of coffee before rushing off to wake your son for school. He groans, rolling out of bed, throwing on the first items out of the pile of clothes on his floor. A few minutes later, he walks by, leaving for school. You try to kiss him on the cheek and tell him you love him, which is only met by him wiping it off and leaving to catch the bus. You carry on with your morning, running around the house, getting ready for work, until your routine is interrupted by a phone call. It’s one of the neighborhood mothers, calling to tell you that an active shooter has been reported to the school that your son just left for two hours before. In complete shock, you drive to his school, which is surrounded by anxious parents, ambulances, and police. The police burst through the doors, followed by terrified students with their hands on the backs of their heads. You watch, waiting for your son to come through those doors, but that moment never comes. Students and teachers are being rolled out on stretchers, names are being called. Devastated people gather around, awaiting the names of their loved ones to be called. A man pushing a stretcher with the sheets pulled over the victim’s face calls out your son’s name. In a single second, a stranger calling out two words, your entire world is shattered. Everything you’ve known for so long is ripped out from under your feet. For some parents, this is the devastating reality that they have been faced with. Violence is around every corner of this harsh, cruel place. It is most definitely a hard pill to swallow; knowing one day your child may leave for school and never make it back home. What’s most terrifying is what our country is doing to protect us from it, which is next to nothing. Preparing a bunch of teenagers is not prevention or protection. We must solve this by understanding how this happens and why this happens. The ‘how’ can be answered easily, a lack of gun control. Someone who is at risk of committing an act of violence should not have access to a gun, no matter what their situation may be. There is no logical reason as to of why an average person has an assault rifle or anything of the like in their possession. If this violence crisis was solved, there wouldn’t even be a need to own one in the case of ‘self-defense’, as most of the time violent crimes are passed by as self-defense. The ‘why’, while just as if not more important is much more complicated than the ‘how’. An act of such hatred cannot be confined to a single reason. Some choose to brush it off as mental illness, which whether it is the case or not, these individuals have more than likely been mistreated or angered causing them to feel the need to commit such acts of hatred. We as the people should feel shame for allowing these issues to get to this point. It isn’t just in school; it’s everywhere, at work, the grocery store, concerts, gas stations. It is sickening how numb our country has become to these acts of violence. We must encourage gun control and safety, as well as showing kindness to everyone that we meet. Smiling at the woman in the grocery store will get you much farther than sitting back and complaining about our government. Kindness is our greatest strength.