I remember the first mass shooting I was rocked by. Sandy Hook. December 14, 2012. It was the first one I followed on the news, it was the first one that made me cry, it was the first one I truly remembered. I posted about it beyond the day it happened, in fact, I posted about it two months later. I know this because this was on my TimeHop this morning. And this post was made five years exactly before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting today, February 14, 2018.

I haven't felt the necessity to post about any shootings beyond the day it happened since. Maybe it is because I've become hardened by the reality of the world, or maybe it is because these days if you post about a mass shooting two months after it happened, a couple more mass shootings have taken place between then. You don't have time to grieve, you don't have time to get more than a "We need to do better" tweet out before you need to draft your next one.

I have to ask, though. Why does a 19-year-old have access to an assault rifle? How does a person who isn't legally allowed to drink a beer able to own an AR-15? Beyond destroying the lives of 17 families and shaking an entire town to their core on a day dedicated to love, what possible purpose does it serve? Why was he allowed to do this?

Stephen Paddock killed 58 people with an assault rifle in Las Vegas.

But guns don't kill people, right?

Omar Mateen killed 49 people with an assault rifle in Orlando.

People kill people, right?

James Holmes killed 12 people with an assault rifle in a Colorado movie theater.

But a good guy with a gun is what stops a bad guy with a gun!

Adam Lanza killed 28 children and teachers with an assault rifle in Sandy Hook.

But the Second Amendment! (Which was written in 1791 when you could shoot approximately three rounds per minute)

Why are we still arguing? For the love of God! That right there is 147 people dead at the hands of assault rifles! I love my freedom of speech. I love my freedom to vote. I love my freedom to peacefully protest. But if those constitutional rights killed 147 people I would be happy to sit down and talk about it, make a plan and figure out how to make sure that never happened again.

(Oh, and 147 is just the number from those four mass shootings, ranging from 2012-2018. There have been 18 shootings in 2018 alone, so we can safely say that number is astronomically higher.)

Guns do kill people. I mean, yeah, you're right, if you lay a gun on the table and ask it to shoot someone, it won't.

Instead, a 19-year-old will just grab it and use it to murder 17 people at his high school.

But yeah, great point about the whole gun-lying-on-the-table thing.

If we had learned and made changes from the hundreds of shootings before him, those 17 kids would be going home to their families today. I understand that the bad guy is the reason this happened, but if the bad guy didn't have access to an assault rifle, those 17 kids would be going home to their families today.

So what's it going to be?

Is your constitutional right worth the death of 17 more people?