It was a sunny April day that seemed almost picturesque. A cool breeze, the sun gleaming through the clouds to light up the sky with its beautiful, almost cleansing, light. For many, it seemed like it was going to be just another beautiful day- until the clock struck 11:22 A.M, when the cop cars sirens roared with authority through the streets. Yes- down in Columbine Colorado, the date of April 20^th, 1999, will be forever engraved in the minds of the citizens of the United States. The Columbine High School Shooting: arguably the most infamous of all high school shootings and unfortunately only the start to a solemn and tragic trend. Statistically speaking from 2013 to now there have been over 142 school shootings. You read that right- 142. With the number of shootings increasing, we as a society, and as a community at Pet-Med, have to begin to question the root of all this and what we can do to help stop it.

As many of you know, on Wednesday of February 14^th, 2018, in Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland Florida, a 19 year old named Nikolas Cruz allegedly entered the building and massacred 17 innocent people — several of his former classmates and three faculty members. Moreover, he did so by simply walking into the building with a semi-automatic rifle and gunning down whoever was in sight of him.

There have been at least eight total shootings in only the mere two months we have been in 2018. Not only have these families lost their children, teachers and staff who expected to go to work and come home never to return, but the fear and anxiety among Americans continues to grow in a time where guns seem to be so readily available to anyone who wants it. In the case of this Florida shooting, Cruz, who was described as mentally unstable, seemed to have a plethora of firearms at his side, with little to no stopping him. In fact, many students had fears about Cruz, claiming “he always had guns on him;” plus, many students went as far as to say “he would be the one to shoot up the school.” Hearing this, knowing that so many people felt this way and yet he still was able to obtain not only a firearm- but a military grade one- is frightening. Just like with Sandy Hook, and Columbine before that, the debate is raised once more: to alter the right to bear arms or maintain its current form. The topic of that debate can be saved for a later date, yet, what we can no longer deny is the lack of mental health care that is available to these teens.

While the debate can be made “do guns kill? or is it people that do so?” —  what we can no longer argue is the psychological state of an individual must be deeply considered. To echo this, President Trump himself agrees that we must “tackle the difficult issue of mental health.” Looking deeper into the statistics, roughly only 30% of teens with depression are being treated for it. Let that sink into you for a second: despite every 100 minutes a teen taking their own life, only 30% are being treated. Now, by no stretch of the imagination is this meant to justify the actions of Cruz, he still should be faced with criminal charges and the crime is inhumane beyond belief. In mentioning this, the purpose is for us as a society to realize the only way to fix this issue is to attack it as its source: putting people behind bars only to let them out is a short-term fix, we must be willing to put in the time, effort, and funds to understand these individuals to fix them.

For all of us here at Pat-Med, we must once more aggregate as a community, to be there for one another as we mourn this sorrowful time for all Americans. This crisis, no- this epidemic plaguing our society is only getting worse. No parent or student should live in a world where they fear going to a building to learn and never returning home. As the next generation up, we are the ones that must take a stand, come together, and make the changes we need. Without it, more innocent lives will continue to be lost.