I may be just some 16-year-old girl. I may have more hormones than the average adult. My opinion does matter, though. I am confident in the fact that something needs to change, something needs to be done about the fact that I fear getting shot while going to school- a place that I have to go to by law.

Education is required by the state. I literally have to go to school every day. If I miss more than a few periods each semester, I get a letter home to my parents telling them that my absences are an issue.

The people who make those laws don’t take into account the fear that many students have these days coming into school, especially a school that doesn’t have metal detectors, a school consisting of over 2,000 kids.

They don’t take into the account that I am terrified of being shot and killed while in school, more so than I am scared of being shot and killed in a dark Walmart parking lot.

Obviously, this is a problem. And, yes, gun control seems like the perfect answer. But, it also seems like something coming straight out of a fairytale.

If you take guns away, and make them illegal, then anyone who has a gun will be considered a criminal. The idea of an increasing rate of criminals who own guns in America is scary. It’s terrifying, actually.

But if we keep guns and do nothing, without a doubt there will be more school shootings. So, the answer to gun enthusiasts seems like sitting back and doing nothing, because then we keep our guns, (which are obviously important to a big percentage of America, so it’s understandable to fear more restrictions on gun laws) but the necessity is not comfort, it’s safety.

The answer has to consist of taking some kind of action, though. Maybe the action isn’t gun control, maybe it isn’t gun rights. Maybe, the action is somewhere in the middle—a compromise.

There should be stricter gun laws. In Florida, it was easier for Nikolas Cruz to get an assault rifle than it is for me to make plans every weekend. Yes, this will make it harder for gun enthusiasts. But even the possibility of a declining rate in homicides by gun could be so, so worth it.

But we should acknowledge also that gun laws aren’t going to repair cold-blooded killers. We need to acknowledge that the gun isn’t always necessarily the problem. If you look into the psychological makeup of school shooters, you see a commonground of some kind of parental abuse, or depression, or schizophrenia, or isolation. It’s never just a gun, it’s a gun in the wrong hands.

Realistically, a better approach to decreasing gun violence would be increasing gun safety and awareness in an educational setting, but also, changing some laws, making some compromises.

My big point is that there is no easy fix. There’s no way to eliminate gun violence within a couple of law changes, or lack thereof. It’s the result of a society that we’ve created that we can’t just repair within a few law changes. But, it’s enough. Let’s start taking steps in the right direction. Even if it’s slow, short steps. Let’s make some changes.