The average bullet travels at 2,500 feet per second, or 1,700 miles per hour. But, when 19 year old Nikolas Cruz killed and wounded 31 people in Parkland, Florida using a semi-automatic AR-15, the bullets were traveling at approximately 3,200 feet per second (Will Drabold, Times).

A bullet clears its path faster than the speed at which brain tissue can tear. This means that the tissue is pushed back until the bullet has left the cranium, then it tears, flinging the brain matter back so hard that it overshoots its initial launching position. The victim has now suffered from a bullet would approximately 10 times bigger than the assault weapons diameter. Within milliseconds of time, an entity becomes emptiness.

There is no argument potent and ornate enough to support the claim that one human has the right to take a life that belongs to another. Murder, in its essence, is vile. But robbing someone of their sentience in less than a second is damnable. No human should have the right or ability to claim a soul as their own in less than a second.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

It’s like living in a sick, twisted nightmare. Today’s America feels like an x-rated dark comedy. Our citizens basically have romantic relationships with their rifles. It’s like we’re all slowly ingesting some poisonous gas that’s been released into our Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. America, to be frank, is off it’s rocker.

Our politicians are so blinded by all of the green they’re seeing from the National Rifle Association (NRA), that they see none of the red, real, tragedy of the shootings which the NRA has so graciously funded.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Donald Trump received more than $30 million from the NRA to support his victory against Hillary Clinton, in 2016. Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and John McCain, are the most highly funded by the NRA (according to the New York Times). How does it feel to know that these leaders, your icons, are as flaky and flimsy as paper money, bought and sold without a fleeting thought?

After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, we are seriously duped. Why is humanity playing hide and seek?

Above all else, we must not forget the lives lost. Above the politics, above the money, above the conflict, are people. Kids. Kids with futures, with friends, and with families.

Our hearts are divided and devoted to —

Alyssa Alhadeff, 14

Scott Beigel, 35

Martin Anguiano, 14

Nicholas Dworet, 17

Aaron Feis, 37

Jaime Gutenberg, 14

Chris Hixon, 49

Luke Homer, 15

Cara Loughran, 14

Gina Montalto, 14

Joaquin Oliver, 17

Alaina Petty, 14

Meadow Pollack, 18

Helena Ramsay, 17

Alex Schachter, 14

Carmen Schentrup, 16

Peter Wang, 15