The recent school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, located in Parkland Florida, claimed 17 innocent lives. Students around the United States are no longer standing idly by, they are rightfully demanding change.

There have been 290 school shootings since 2013. From 2009 and 2016, there have been 1,187 victims of mass shootings, 843 of whom were killed. The amount of school shooting related deaths is an incredibly high number compared to that of Japan, a country with strict gun control and a population of 127 million that sees lower than 10 gun related deaths each year.

For too long, mass shootings have continued to persist in America. Each time a shooting takes place, the news latches onto the story and displays it on every television and newspaper, causing people to mourn, to talk, but they ultimately move on. In the aftermath, absolutely no new significant policies and laws are implemented that could put an end to deaths resulting from one troubled or trigger-happy person.

For example, the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting was committed by a mentally-ill 20-year-old who killed 26 people, 20 being first graders. Now, seven years later, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is suffering from the same problem: a mentally-disturbed person easily acquiring a gun.

When will our society learn from our past mistakes and how many more lives will be lost before we finally change?

As an American, I know that not many citizens are open to change, I see it in everyday life. People are so rooted in a routine and so comfortable in the lives they are living that they never want the world to evolve. In a generation where mass shootings are becoming increasingly common and normalized, we need change. America cannot possibly continue on in this manner for risk of running our country into the ground.

Now, survivors of the tragic shooting in Parkland are voicing their opinions and calling for reform. They are not alone: students all around the country are hosting walkouts, like the one that occurred at Cam High on Feb. 21, to show their support for creating gun control that will protect our schools and students. Parkland survivors are passionate and they are driven by grief and rage as they battle lawmakers in Tallahassee to create peace.

And yet, adults are the obstacle in this situation. The adults that believe these teens should not be allowed to demand gun control ,simply because they have not studied gun statistics for years, are wrong, for these young adults have seen death and felt fear that no student should ever have to.

The adults that insist that us teens are too naive and insignificant to create such a momentous change within our country, are wrong. We are citizens of America and we deserve to create change, to be heard, and to be acknowledged because we are the future. We will have to live in this world, and we will have to be the ones to repair it.

Schools are not a place of death, they are a place of knowledge, prosperity, and safety.

Citizens of America, will you sit passively while your fellow countrymen are slaughtered by the pull of a trigger, or will you be the change to create a country that is peaceful, vibrant, and safe for all?