130 mass shootings in 2023. At least 20 of them in schools. 96 days in 2023. Does something about that seem off? It should. 130 mass shootings is 130 too many. 20 school shootings is 20 too many. There have been more mass shootings than days this year.

In Colorado, there have been 5 mass shootings in the past month already. Many Broomfield High School students are sick of it. Bless Tomarong, Scarlet Farnham, Xavier Mariotti, Heather Springer, Carter Reid, Finn Cohen and Trinity Klein all pitched in to set up the walk-out at our school, since they strongly believe in the cause.

“I have been lucky. I have yet to see my school shot up. I have yet to see my family members die at the hands of a rifle. I have yet to experience the horrors going down in this country. The key word being yet. I am lucky, but luck runs out,” said Klein when speaking to the group.

We have grown up, and gone through our school years being taught to hide in the event of an intruder. Being taught to leave everything up to hope and pure chance and luck. New secure, fold-out walls are being made in classrooms. Too much work is placed into preparation for an intrusion, and not enough is put into preventing it. It is great to be prepared, but we have this situation in which we have given up on prevention and just sit around waiting for it to happen, hoping that if (and/or when) it does, our preparation will not be wasted.

When our generation was growing up, we did lockdown and lockout drills, but we didn’t hear a about more shootings than days in the year. The shootings were few and far between, and devastating. As we continued through middle school, and into high school, hearing about shootings has become a near daily occurrence, and the impact is still crippling.

“I don’t want to live in a world where a child can have access to a gun and use it for impure intent,” said Tomarong. “I just think for us, for the past two years, what pains me the most is about mass shootings.”

It makes you wonder how we let it get to this. How has the mental health in our country decreased, and violence increased so much in what, 3, 4 years? It seems we are beyond that point now, and have to focus on how to prevent this from getting worse — how to prevent it at all.

“We are here to make sure that our generation is the last that has to suffer and fear gun violence,” Mariotti said, speaking passionately about the ideal outcome of the cause that over 100 (by estimation) BHS students and some alumni showed up to support.

Students everywhere are wondering when enough will be enough for the people who have the power to act on this horrific issue. Many believe we surpassed “enough” far too long ago, that fear has no place in schools, and that many of the people who govern our country continue to turn a blind eye. They have a responsibility to represent Americans and to do what is best for them.

Is ignorance what is seen as the best? The silence is deafening.