I own guns and go hunting in the fall. I also participated in our school’s walk out for increased gun control. So, yes, people like me do exist, in case you were wondering.

One of the reasons I participate in the walk out was because I thought it was great that our school had actually organized a walk out, especially since we live in an area where gun control is a touchy subject. Seeing the 80 or so students, staff, faculty and community members who participated in the walk out made me hopeful that minds might be opening. Not that it should have taken thousands of lives for that to happen though.

A side note with that is that I wasn’t the only person who was impressed that our little Minnesota school organized this, as we were featured in a story in the Washington Post.

The other reason I participated in the walk out is because I have thought for years that we needed tighter laws on who can own guns. I don’t necessarily want my gun to be taken from me, and if I need to go through multiple background, safety, and health checks in order to keep it, I’ll do that.

Even if my gun needs to be taken to ensure that people across the nation can keep their lives, I’d be able to accept that. I’ve got two sisters in high school in a small town, and I never want to see their name on a list of people who have been hurt or killed in a school shooting.

Put it this way – if you found out that your brother, sister, mom, dad, friend, etc., had just been killed from a shooting, would your mind on gun control change? At this rate, the odds of that happening are too high for comfort for me.

So, yes, I support gun control. But the key word here for me is “control”. It’s not a call for gun removal. The students of Parkland, and the majority of us who agree with them, are simply asking that our government actually does something to try and stop innocent lives from being taken.