I tried bringing my hands to the keyboard several times with the sincere intention of pressing the buttons to create words…hopefully actual sentences, that would communicate coherent thoughts about gun violence. About how this number one killer of kids in America, is inexcusable and preventable. We live in Denver, Colorado, and just a few days ago, two deans at East High School, located in Denver, were shot by a 17-year-old student who would later take his own life with a gun.

News coverage reported a familiar yet eerie scene at East, students being guided out of the building, police securing the area, paramedics at the ready, parents waiting to see their kids, officials giving updates. It was another school shooting, only this time, the shooting was at the school where my son is an alumni. The school where we did drop off and pick up. The school where we attended concerts, musicals, and parent teacher conferences. Like so many families, East High School, is our school.

This school shooting was not the first at East. A recent shooting at East High School robbed an amazing Angel of their young bright life. East students mourned, marched, spoke up, presented specific gun safety measures to elected officials, and then another shooting happened at East. Another incident of gun violence at their school. This is too much.

While still taking it all in, still looking at that blinking cursor on my screen…another school shooting happened. This time, in Nashville at The Covenant School, a private Christian school, where three 9-year-old students and three adults were killed.

East students, like students across the country, endure active shooter drills, anticipating the possibility of a shooter at their school. Schools can’t be prisons and neither can the minds of politicians, who are elected to protect human beings, not the huge egos of the gun lobby. This has to stop. More guns don’t make us more safe. Enough.

My soul is aching for the angels in Nashville.