The deaths of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is a catastrophic tragedy.

Students across the country participated in a National School Walkout on March 14 to raise awareness about school safety and gun violence. I was one of the small group of students at Liberty who participated. At first, only a few people including myself were outside. When people started flooding outside from the cafeteria, everyone was loud and talking. My friend took initiative and told them that this wasn’t a social hour that this was serious.

I did not go outside to ban guns. Banning guns is not only unrealistic but pretty near impossible. Banning guns is not going to solve anything, however, guns should be hard to get. It should be a long process and it should be a challenge.

I am tired of checking my phone and seeing a “school shooting” notification. The victims in school shootings never got to say they love their parents one last time, they never get to finish high school, and they never get to grow old because some deranged person decided they wanted to go to a school and kill innocent kids. Why are we letting this happen? Why are people taking lost lives and turning it into a political debate? None of the victims’ families care about your political party. They care about getting justice for the next person who decides to shoot up a school.

Every life is important, and no one should be scared to send their kids to school. School should be a safe place and should be a place of learning. Any school could be the next target.

People who are calling the walkout dumb and pointless would care a lot more if their school was the target. This isn’t about politics. This isn’t about who is right and who is wrong. This is about lives. This is about the students who have to sit next to empty seats at their graduation.

The first school shooting I ever heard about was in my seventh grade year and not a single student tried to bring politics into it. Everyone cared about the lives, not the debate.

I was not standing outside during the walkout to tell people that they’re wrong. I’m not hand in hand with students to tell you that Trump is bad. I am not silent for 17 minutes to prove people wrong. I am outside to try and make a change in any way I can.

I was not outside to tell you that you can’t have a gun. No one is saying that you shouldn’t be allowed to have hunting weapons, or even guns that can keep your family safe in the event that it’s needed that stays locked up in a safe until it’s needed. Crimes do happen. However, people with mental issues, criminal records and ill intentions should not be able to get a hold of a gun that’s capable of murdering concert venues full of people, packed nightclubs, or schools full of learning kids.

I am tired of people trying to defend their Second Amendment rights. This is a document that couldn’t foresee the future and see all the mass shootings going on in modern day America. No person who isn’t active in the military should be allowed to have a AR-15, which can fire up to 800 rounds a minute. The precious Second Amendment was not written to support semi-automatic rifles. Face it. Technology has been evolving at an alarming rate. The laws and restrictions should be changing just as fast. No matter the argument you want to make, people are dying and something has to be done about it. This is why I was outside. This is why I want to make a change.