The more things change in America, the more other things seem to stay the same. In the case of gun violence at and within our schools, however, there is a mountain of evidence to back up the assertion that things have only gotten worse.

The recent shooting at an Atlanta, Georgia suburban high school that left four dead and four others injured will unfortunately become just another statistic in America’s ongoing epidemic of gun violence targeting young students and teachers. As we have seen in shootings in Parkland, Fla., Uvalde, Texas, and all the way back to Columbine in 1999, the perpetrator was also a young man (in this case, unbelievably just 14 years old) who was able to acquire a firearm and use it to sow life-altering destruction.

The issue is one of the most raw and tender exposed nerves in our culture today. And yet, while politicians and partisan talking heads continuously fuel a toxic and largely ineffective war of words that seems to only further polarize people farther apart from one another, teachers, students, parents, and law enforcement officials are fighting a real war against anticipatory dread as they try to prepare for the unimaginable, and pray that their community will not be the next to show up on the nightly news.

The issue is far too complex and varied to parse out in any one column, or a dozen columns for that matter. Instead, we would like to focus in one element of the gun violence argument that seems to generate more consensus than caustic contrarianism.

Access.

How can a 14-year-old be legally given a weapon with the power to kill dozens with a single magazine? How can unfettered access to such weapons, legally gifted to literal children, be considered a Constitutional right when our founding fathers parried with flintlock pistols, and fought the war for independence with smooth-bore muskets?

A father gifting their son a bolt- or pump-action, .22 caliber hunting rifle — whether to shoot targets at a range, to go small-game hunting, or just to learn about proper responsibility in wielding a gun, is one thing — you could even argue it is a responsible thing. But to provide a weapon that would have outclassed the majority of service rifles used in the Vietnam War to a troubled teenager without providing any of the proper guidance on the immense responsibility required when wielding such a powerful object should absolutely not be protected as a right. As is thankfully happening in a response to the Georgia shooting, that parent should be prosecuted as a criminal, who enabled an act of violence due to their negligence.

The consistent chorus of dissidence we hear time and time again when the topic of better gun control legislation inevitably comes up in the wake of one of these tragedies is that “responsible gun owners” are victimized by such measures. But the simple fact of our modern reality is that irresponsible gun owners are opening the door for some of the most heinous and despicable acts seen in the 21st century.

According to EveryTown For Gun Safety, from 2013 to 2022, there have been 720 incidents of gunfire on the grounds of a preschool or K-12 school, and roughly 75% of those shooters who were under the age of 18 when they committed the act acquired the firearms used in the shooting from their own home, or from the home of a close relative.

Safe storage laws and universal, mandated background checks do not deny your ability as an adult to possess a firearm, but they do prevent them from falling into the hands of someone who will use them for ill intent. Red flag laws that allow a reasonable legal process to remove guns from demonstrably dangerous or at-risk individuals do not create a slippery slope to having everyone’s guns taken away.

If this nightmarish scenario is to ever be stabilized, so-called responsible gun owners need to stop making excuses for those fellow gun owners among them who fail to take that responsibility seriously, and come to the table on enacting national laws to prevent their mistakes from ending the lives of innocent men, women, and children.