They are starting to call us the "mass shooting generation" and it angers me and it should anger you too. The school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida marked the eighteenth school shooting in 2018. That means that there have been roughly three school shootings per week, which is outrageous! These children should only have to worry about their math test or what they are going to eat for lunch, but instead, they are worried about whether or not they are ever going to see their family and friends again. That is not okay!

In response to school shootings, some are calling for gun control and some are calling for mental health awareness. But what good is fighting each other doing for those families that have lost their children? Gun control or mental health awareness is not going to bring their child back to them. Now I am not saying that gun control or mental health awareness is bad, but we should also focus on helping those families that are never going to see their child again.

As a member of the "mass shooting generation," I am absolutely appalled at the responses that our leaders are giving in response to these tragedies. How is you saying "sorry" and "this should never happen" in a 30-minute press conference helpful? Your words are losing meaning, and soon, very soon, they are going to have lost all of their meaning.

It should not take high school students, who should be worrying about what college they want to go to, to hold a press conference for any leader to acknowledge what they are going through. I have never been in a school shooting, but I bet it is an extremely scary situation, and they did not have to hold a press conference for me to feel for them.

We are called the "mass shooting generation" and we should take it on and fight for change harder than we ever have before. We need to be the change that allows the next generation to not have to go to school worried if this is the day that their life ends.

Now I do not have the right solution to propose but I believe that it needs to start with a conversation. We need to engage our leaders in a tough conversation that they do not want to have. We need to stand up and say that enough is enough, that we are going to be the generation that sparks the change.