America has a gun problem. According to Max Fischer of The Washington Post, the United States had the highest rate of gun ownership per capita in the world in 2012: with nearly 90 guns per 100 people. In the same study, the next closest country is Yemen, a country that hosts a branch of Al Qaeda and is just around 20 years past a civil war, with a little over 50 guns per 100 people. There is no reason that America needs so many guns.

Another study conducted in 2012 showed that America had by far the highest number of homicides by firearm per one million people, with about 30 homicides among developed countries. The nearest developed country is Switzerland, with only about eight per one million people.

The reason both of these studies—and so many others—were conducted in 2012 is because the Sandy Hook massacre took place that year. A 20-year-old named Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy, in their home, stole her three guns, and drove to the nearby Sandy Hook elementary school where he used those guns to murder twenty children and six adults. He then took his own life. The children were mostly between five and seven years old. The killer used a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns, which were all purchased legally by his mother. This was one of the most despicable crimes in American history at the time, and still is today.

According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 60% of people say they own guns to protect against crime, 36% for hunting, and 21% for recreational/target shooting (respondents were allowed to pick more than one answer). But Nancy Lanza had no need for three guns; it only takes one to stop a criminal or hunt or shoot at a shooting range. But she had three anyway, which led to the deaths of more than 25 people, including herself.

Of course, after such a devastating shooting like Sandy Hook, where children younger than six years old were murdered, the U.S. had to pass major legislation to ensure that this kind of tragedy never occurred again. The great country of the United States of America could not tolerate 20 of their citizens with the brightest of futures being murdered in cold blood, right? Apparently America could live with it, or at least the congressmen, who were too scared to do anything about it, could. The National Rifle Association (NRA) made sure that nothing changed, as they often had before Sandy Hook and after. The NRA has such a large political influence, both in funds and in society, that they can get any bill passed or denied that they want.

In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, President Obama and Vice President Biden spearheaded a gun control bill that, among other things, would increase background checks for people who are interested in purchasing a gun and decrease the size of high capacity magazines, according to Aamer Madhani of USA Today. According to Philip Rucker and Peter Wallsten of The Washington Post, Biden set up 22 meetings to talk about the bill. In these meetings, the NRA blamed violent video games and little else for the shooting. The bill never passed, as the NRA delivered a scathing review of the bill, saying, “We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.” The opposition from the NRA ensured that basically all Republican, and many Democratic congressmen would vote against the bill, as an endorsement from the NRA could be the difference in reelection, all most congressmen care about.

The most that was done was a few executive orders by President Obama, and a whole lot of “thoughts and prayers.” Almost every congressmen and millions of Americans released statements or tweeted that their thoughts and prayers were with the victims, yet nothing was done.

Almost five years have passed. There have been shootings that killed five or more people in Washington D.C, Santa Monica, Isla Vista, Charleston, Chattanooga, Roseburg, San Bernardino, Orlando, Burlington, Fort Lauderdale, Orange County, and finally Las Vegas, the record setter for the deadliest shooting in American history, killing 59 people and injuring more than 500 more. The shooter was named Stephen Paddock, an old white guy who owned 47 guns, and had bought more than 30 of them in the past year. The media couldn’t play its usual mass shooting game, “which minority or terrorist group could he belong to?” as they normally do after a tragedy like this since he was a boring, old, white guy. There seemed to be nothing off about the guy, according to the media, with headlines like, “Who Was Stephen Paddock? The Mystery of a Nondescript ‘Numbers Guy’” from The New York Times or “The Mystery of Stephen Paddock: Why?” from CNN. Fox News of course had the largest enigma of the bunch, saying “Las Vegas Gunman Seemed Like ‘A Rational Man,’ Steve Wynn Tells ‘Fox News Sunday.’”

I’m no detective, FBI agent, conspiracy theorist, or guy who has no clue what he’s talking about hosting a late night news show (a la Sean Hannity), but I think I can figure out what was wrong with him. There is no possible way that a human being needs 47 guns for any purpose. It certainly isn’t rational. The fact that him buying 30 guns in the last year didn’t tip anyone off is preposterous to me, but shows what is excruciatingly wrong with our country. This man was allowed to purchase semi-automatic weapons, equipped with a “bump stock” to basically make it an automatic weapon. A “bump stock” is an attachment to a semi-automatic weapon which uses the air pressure of the gun firing a bullet to quickly load and fire the next bullet, transforming a semi-automatic gun into an almost fully automatic weapon. These guns are designed to kill people en masse, which is exactly what Stephen Paddock did with them, and the majority of news media, right wing “constitutionalists,” and second amendment lovers don’t seem to see the clear answer to their question of “how did this happen?”

I’ve got news for second ammendment absolutionalists by the way. The founding fathers never intended the “right to bear arms” to mean that any person could have the right to own a gun that could kill 50 people in a short amount of time. The founding fathers did this so that people could go hunting for their food, as you couldn’t go to the local Walmart to buy ribs back then. Most times you had to hunt, kill, skin, prepare, cook, and eat an animal yourself. Back then, the guns that existed reloaded in about one minute: one bullet per minute. The second amendment the founders wrote back in the 1700s is so outdated that it is no longer relevant to any discussion of gun control.

At a certain point, the automatic response of the right wing or anyone else under the control of the NRA is not enough. Sending “thoughts and prayers” to the families of the victims does not prevent a mass shooting from happening, nor does it bring the victims back. A moment of silence is a nice gesture, and we should allow the families of the victims to grieve, but there have been far too many moments of silence over the years and not enough action. Also, the “do not politicize this,” or “can’t we allow the families to grieve before we get into politics?” is frankly ridiculous and idiotic. When is a better time to talk about preventing mass shootings from happening than right after a mass shooting? After we as a nation forget and move on? No. It must be before the “thoughts and prayers” die down. It must be now so that while we are too caught up in prayer or moments of silence, another shooting doesn’t happen: leading to more death and despair, and more “thoughts and prayers.”

I am not saying that every gun needs to be taken away from lawful gun owners, just the unnecessary ones. You can go ahead and do whatever you like (legally) with your lawful handgun or musket. All I’m asking for is some common sense. More guns do not equal more peace; if that is the goal of the right, then that is an unreachable goal. If one of the victims in Las Vegas had pulled out a gun and started trying to shoot back at the shooter, why would the police not have shot them? How would the police know that the shooter was just trying to help out? The police would most likely think that they were the shooter, and therefore that person would most likely contribute to the problem rather than solve it.

To the people on the left or right, and specifically those in congress, do not be afraid of the NRA. Polls show that people are in overwhelming support of at least a little bit more gun control, as 94% of people agree with more background checks in a Quinnipiac University poll from June 22-27, 2017.  In that same poll, 54% of people agree that there should be stricter gun laws in this country. Your only opposition is the NRA; you have the support of the people. Please do something, something that creates change. The American people need change in order to prevent these shootings. Stop just sending “thoughts and prayers” because frankly, the American people don’t need them.