On the morning of Oct. 2, I woke up to notifications that we have had yet another mass shooting in America. As sad as it is, these mass killings have started to no longer shock me. I feel sadness and devastation for those involved, but I no longer feel shocked or surprised to hear of these.

The fact that I no longer find these shocking is extremely worrisome to me. America has been debating over gun control for years, but we have seen very little progress actually made on the subject. It is time that our government comes together to find an answer to this problem. I think this answer needs to be stricter gun laws.

I wouldn’t say I have historically supported stricter gun control. In supporting the Constitution and, in my opinion, that also means citizens of the United States have the right to own guns. In American culture, gunmanship has become a sport and owning guns has become a ‘necessity’ for self defense. I do not see a problem with this as long as citizens are respectful of their right. In being respectful of your right, this means prioritizing gun safety, and I do not believe this is something all American gun owners practice.

We have seen too many mass shootings in the past few years to stand by and not make a change in our gun laws. A respectful gun owning citizen should not have a problem with going through more background checks or safety training before purchasing a gun. In your choice to purchase this potentially deadly tool, you comply to the responsibility that comes with it. Part of government means compromise and not always receiving all the change you hope to see. We owe it to the victims of these mass tragedies to create change in our society and its gun laws.

At this point, I no longer find gun control to be a political issue. Thousands of people a year die from gun-related deaths. With numbers like this, it is nearly impossible to say that gun violence hasn’t touched you or someone you know in some way. No matter your political stance, you suffer from gun violence in America in some way, you have lost fellow friends, family and citizens because of it.

Gun violence is an issue we face as a people and we need to set our political biases aside to solve this problem. If a more liberal view of gun control is what we need to stop this problem in America, then that’s the approach we need to embrace. We are not doing the victims justice by standing by and not enacting change. Even if it isn’t your ideal solution, we need to create change that will solve the problems we are bombarded with.