Warning: This is an editorial on gun control. Please refrain from shutting down your mind until you hear what I have to say; I promise to not propose anything too radical.

On June 12, 2016, 49 people were murdered and 53 others were injured in a terrorist attack and hate crime in a gay nightclub in Orlando, resulting in the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter in American history. The shooter had a semi-automatic rifle as well as a semi-automatic pistol. Since then, in three short months, there have been upwards of 7,000 cases of gun violence in the U.S., according to gunviolencearchives.org.

Before you start formulating counterarguments in your head about gun violence, just think about that number: 7,000 cases of gun violence in the past two-and-a-half months alone. Think of all the lives lost, all the lives ruined. Many people will never understand the severity of gun violence in our country unless they experience it first-hand. But I hope everyone can have sympathy for all of the lives, families, schools and communities torn apart at the hands of firearms.

There are many arguments against gun control that have been used for years. People say, “If everyone had a gun, we’d all be safer.” First of all, that’s like saying if everyone ate McDonald’s we’d all be thinner. Second of all, this is historically and factually incorrect. In several shootings, when a bystander has used a gun, the situation is exponentially worsened and made more dangerous for everyone. In one instance, a bystander used her firearm during a shooting and accidentally shot another innocent person. The shooter was eventually tackled and stopped by an elderly man.             We’ve all heard this one; people say, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people!” How clever, right? Well, a gun certainly helps. Could the shooter in Orlando have murdered nearly 50 people in a minute with a knife? Even a non-automatic weapon? I can guarantee not. At a certain point, the weapon becomes partially responsible for the extent of a crime.

And of course, people say, “Americans have a right to bear arms!” Yes, the second amendment says that Americans have the right to bear arms. The second amendment was also written over 200 years ago, when a gun could fire about one bullet every 90 seconds, and when the country had just finished a war and it was somewhat reasonable to have wider gun ownership. How is it that some people just earned the right to marry, and yet a right that enables the murder of 50 of people in a minute is granted at birth?

America’s gun violence rate is higher than nearly every other industrialized country in the world. More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms each year in this country. More than 30 people are shot and killed every day. In Canada, less than 200 people die from firearms every year. In Germany and France, less than 150. So what do these countries have in common? Well, they all require a license, registration, reason for purchase, safety training and safe storage in order to purchase a gun. America has very few of these requirements. What to we have that none of them have, though? The right to bear arms.

It is absurdly easy to purchase a firearm in this country, especially an automatic or semi-automatic one. To prove this, I went onto the deep web of the Internet, and within 27 minutes, I was one step away from being able to purchase an automatic weapon and have it delivered to my doorstep. I am 17. I needed no license, no registration, no reason for purchase, nothing. It should not, cannot, be that easy for someone to purchase a weapon that allows them to murder dozens of people. We need much stricter safety check and purchasing laws.

Perhaps the most infuriating argument against gun regulation is when people say, “Nothing can possibly change. This problem can’t be solved with new laws.” Really? 30 people, 30 human beings, will die today. And tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that. And people are content to simply be apathetic and unwilling to try? This mentality surpasses ignorance; it is true heartlessness. After a horrific mass shooting in Australia, the country banned all guns from civilians, resulting in a record low gun violence rate. What was America’s reaction to the elementary school shooting of Sandy Hook? Concealed carry laws.

Until we make a change, we are all defending and enabling future mass shootings, future death. The blood of the victims in Orlando, of all of the people who will be murdered with a gun today and tomorrow and so on, is on all of our hands. We need to stop all of this death. Isn’t it at least worth a try?