Like most of you I too am heart broken about the recent shootings and so many innocent people losing their precious lives. However, I struggle to believe the background check before purchasing a gun is the answer to the problem. I find it to be a pacifier deterring us from the real issue. The last two shootings were committed by two 18-year olds in Arizona and Texas campuses in response to an argument. When an 18-year-old feels pulling a gun and shooting another human being is easier than using his reasoning and social skills to problem solve and settle an argument we have bigger problems than debating gun control.

Another tragedy occurred in the hands of a 26-year old that massacred young and old on the campus in Oregon. I do not defend his actions, it was a horrible and heinous act, however, why would a 26 year old be so isolated and removed that no one noticed his cries for help prior to him totally losing his humanity and taking these precious lives to then turn the gun on himself? This is another sign that most of us do not pay attention, or care enough about what is going on around us. We are not present in the moment to notice when someone may be crying out for help. We don’t care enough to extend ourselves to another in need. When someone in school, work, or where we play acts strange we mostly choose to raise an eyebrow, have smirk on the face, call him crazy and distance ourselves.

What happened to the random acts of kindness? The question is if these young people were raised by a society that cares in total and pays attention to the needs of the youth, how many of these incidents will we experience? Additionally, we fail when as a society we spend more money operating prisons than investing in mental healthcare. There are hundreds of families that are faced with raising a child with mental and behavioral issues that have no options to access resources to get help for their child resulting in tragedies of different scales. So at what point are we going to demand the change required to truly prevent these tragedies? Are you going to care enough to be a part of a social revolution before you or a loved one is touched by similar tragedy?

— Shohreh Rostami