Enough is Enough: We Must Act Now to End School Shootings

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This is Mason Schermerhorn, Christian Angulo, Richard Aspinwall, and Christina Irmie. These names and faces should be living stories of dreams, aspirations, and futures. But instead, they are reminders of a tragic, preventable reality—the devastating school shooting at Apalachee High School.


How many more innocent lives must be cut short? How many families must be torn apart before real action is taken? This is not just a problem of the Apalachee High School or a few isolated incidents. This is a nationwide epidemic that has claimed far too many lives.


We are tired. Tired of sending our children to school, wondering if they’ll come back. Tired of teachers becoming frontline defenders instead of educators. Tired of being told “thoughts and prayers” will fix the gaping wound of gun violence that rips through our communities every day.


**This is not acceptable.** And no amount of words will bring back these four lives—young, middle-aged, full of potential, loved, and irreplaceable.


What Needs to Change? 


1. **Comprehensive Gun Control Now**: The United States is facing a gun violence crisis. We need stricter background checks, mandatory waiting periods, and bans on assault weapons designed for war—not for our schools, malls, or streets. No 14-year-old child should be living in fear that their school will be the next target of a mass shooting.


2. **Mental Health Support**: It’s time to address the severe mental health crisis in this country. Schools need more counselors, better mental health programs, and resources to identify and help those who are struggling. But mental health alone is NOT the cause of gun violence—it’s the availability of guns that allows these tragedies to happen.


3. **Holding Lawmakers Accountable**: We must demand more from our politicians. If they are unwilling to act, they should not be in office. Period. It’s time for real accountability. If they are taking money from the NRA or any other group that prioritizes profits over lives, they are complicit in the deaths of these victims.


4. **Community Mobilization**: It’s not just up to lawmakers—**it’s up to us too.** We need to be louder, angrier, and relentless in demanding change. From organizing protests, reaching out to representatives, supporting gun control organizations, to holding media accountable for their coverage—there is something we can all do.


The Time to Act is NOW


It’s easy to get lost in the sadness, the heartbreak, the hopelessness. But we can’t afford that luxury anymore. The lives of Mason, Christian, Richard, and Christina demand more. They deserve more. 


We honor the victims of Apalachee High School by demanding real action. We can’t wait for the next tragedy. We can’t sit on the sidelines anymore while children and educators die. 


Enough is enough. It's time to stand up, speak out, and fight like hell for a future where our schools are places of learning, not battlegrounds. **We owe it to them.**



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