A loud BOOM, BOOM like a thundering bang, loud enough to wake the dead beyond the grave. Through the window you could hear the rising and falling of conversations; the rhythmic cadence of patrol officers trampling through the steady ground. The red and blue fluorescence, transmitting through the clear dark windows; The wail and yelp of police sirens, the screaming echoes as the cops heavily trudged down the street. Eerie noises erupting from the mouths of adolescents; coming from the rusted, red, rancid, rigid hollow building. Stampedes of petrified, panicked pedestrians, gushing through; scared like little ants trying to find their way home. Shots fired, like the gunman conspired. Bodies shot in, but they were never forgotten. Blood is so smooth, like a waterfall flowing into a river. The opaque, thick blood, flowing from their ripped, jagged, wounded flesh, of their delicate pale bodies. A bullet hole, the size of a baseball, left in their chests; the blood still flowing, leaving their rapidly pailing chests. There was something; then nothing. Life; then no life. A pulse; then no pulse. It was a gruesome scene; Thick red darkness crept upon the room. A nasty smell coming from the bodies, the vile aroma tainted the bright, clean fragrance there once was. Bullet holes were scattered, leaping across the school; in doors, chalkboards, notebooks, desks. We waited outside for what felt like months, months turned into years, years turned into decades, decades turned into centuries. RING DING DING. Was it good news? Did they find my kid? Or would I never see them again? They were gone. Why didn’t the police do what they had to do to get in earlier? Maybe she would be here if they did. Why did the police take so long to arrive at the scene, maybe if they got here earlier my cousin would still be alive. Why were the police cowards and didn't save my cousin sooner? Maybe she would have been alive if they did. Or maybe, it would have never been the police’s fault, if not just anybody could walk into a gun store and purchase a gun. Maybe if the government were to have set laws regarding gun control, this would have never happened. Maybe if they were red flag laws that checked the history of the person buying the gun, and their background, their past, this never would have happened. Maybe if they raised the age to purchase a gun, this never would have happened. Maybe if they denied access to purchasing high pressure guns to below 25, and unless for a valid reason why you need that gun, a bullet hole the size of a baseball wouldn’t have altered someone’s cousins, sisters, brothers, child’s chest. The government needs to stand up and realize this problem isn’t going anywhere until they do something about it. Maybe you the person hearing this needs to protest, maybe you the person hearing this needs to speak up about this issue, maybe you hearing this needs to be the change the world needs. You might just hear this, agree, and then just forget about it the next day, but no you need to speak up now, until it’s too late for you to speak at all. In 2023, the everytown research organization stated that gun violence resulted in 40,886 deaths and 31,652 injuries, a 9 percent decrease from 2023. More than 5,200 of those were children and teens. Get up and do something about it.