At 10:22 p.m. on January 28, 19-year-old Dylan Salas was shot and killed near the intersection Harmony Road and Shields Street. This is not the first shooting to happen in 2018. It seems like there’s been a new one every day. In fact, there was another one the very next day.

What made Salas’ death significant was that he was a Rocky student, which made it hit closer to home and made me start thinking about school shootings and gun violence. There have been 11 school shootings already this year. Is there anything we can do to stop this? Is our second amendment too loose?

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.“ I’m all for the right to bear arms but there should be a limit to who can buy what and how much they can buy. If it was more difficult for not just children but adults the amount of mass shootings would go down. In Colorado, you can walk into a store with a minor background check and purchase firearms.

January 23, 2018, Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, there was a 15-year-old shooter who shot 16 students and killed two 15-year-olds. This is one of the eleven shootings this year and these are only 18 of the dozens of students who have been affected by these gruesome events.

You have to wonder how these kids got the weapons. Of course, the child shooters are to blame for this, but what if there was something that our government could have done that would have made it more difficult for these children to gain access to weapons? Maybe our Second Amendment needs some updating and specifications regarding who can carry weapons and who can purchase weapons? Perhaps we need to address access to weapons and storage of guns?  

This is not something that we should just hope gets better. People, kids, are dying and nothing is changing. Even if taking and look and maybe changing the second amendment doesn’t help, it is still better than sitting back and watching it happen over and over again. If it does work we could be saving the lives of generations of kids.

When my friends and I talk about school shootings, we’re not actively scared every day, but there’s always a sense of unease. We are on edge. Should students in America just get used to the feeling that anything could happen or should we try to do something about it? I feel like we should at least try.

The American people need to find a compromise. If we can find a solution that helps gun owners keep their arms and non gun owners feel safe, everyone can benefit from the potential decrease in mass shootings. To everyone who thinks that the second amendment is fine, tell that to the parents and siblings of everyone who has been affected by school shootings, mass shootings at concerts and other venues, and families like the Salas’.