Our nation is facing a growing number of student casualties in school shootings and has been for several years.

Nevertheless, little action has taken place after these horrific events occurred.

The Columbine High School shooting took the nation by surprise and is a shooting that still affects people to this day.

Thirteen lives were lost and more than 20 others were injured.

According to CNN, home videos from the shooters were filmed before the attack, hinting what they were planning to do.

The security increased in some schools like the police in hallways, metal detectors, security cameras, and required students had to carry IDs.

For some, this may seem like a lot of security. It was clearly not enough to prevent any more heinous acts from happening.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was the next place to experience a horrific shooting. It was known as the Virginia Tech massacre.

It claimed the lives of 32 students and teachers and injured about 30 others.

According to The New York Times, university authorities were reluctant to spread the news about the first two victims that were killed in the shooting while the shooter was still active.

Again, the lack of response against the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, when two lives had already been taken was the reason why so many lives were lost.

Given the shooter’s psychological history, he shouldn’t have been able to easily obtain the two guns he used in the shooting.

The saddest shooting that took place was in Newtown, Connecticut, and was known as the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.

Adam Lanza killed 20 students, between the ages of 6 and 7, and six faculty members in the school.

According to the HuffPost, organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) claim that lawmakers are after law-abiding Americans when it comes to stricter gun laws.

But, owning a gun similar to an AR-15, which Lanza used in the shooting shouldn’t be easily obtained due to the fact that they are guns of war.

Lawmakers have pushed for stricter gun laws and only a few have been enforced.

Now, 17 student and faculty lives were once more lost in Parkland, Florida.

According to Time, classmates described the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, as a troubled kid and a loner who was obsessed with guns as well as other weapons.

Time reported that the FBI could have taken action against him when he posted on a Youtube video where he said he was going to become a “professional school shooter.”

All of these school shootings have one thing in common: the lack of action against the shooters.

There were many signs and sometimes those signs were reported to the authorities but nothing was done, like at Parkland.

Sixty-eight lives were lost in events that could have been avoided, but the growing number of victims has proven to not be enough to cause a significant change in how authorities deal with potential shooters.

What our federal government should do is start listening to the survivors and remembering the victims by creating laws against guns. Bump up the age restriction for owning a gun, make stricter background checks, or possibly ban all assault rifles.

The second amendment grants us the right to protect ourselves by owning a gun but no 18-year-old should be able to get one so easily to create mass shootings.