In 2015, 8,697 have died from the same cause. Even as you read this, the death toll will increase.

The culprit? Gun violence.

Something has to stop.

Last week there was another highly publicized shooting; this time broadcast live on television.

Alison Parker and Adam Ward were shot in the head by a former colleague while filming a news segment, and for a week, people watched footage of the murder with macabre fascination.

We have an unusual relationship with firearms. We’re a country born from armed revolution and in turn, a nation that decided to protect the right to keep and bear arms.

Before you give me the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” defense, stop right there.

People holding guns, often times with unnecessarily high capacity magazines, kill people.

How long are we going to leave this problem unchecked? How long do we let our politicians ignore the problem in an attempt to pacify potential voters?

I don’t think the founding fathers dreamed that nine months into 2015 there would have been 34, 243 violent gun incidents.

I’m not saying the second amendment wouldn’t have existed had they known, or that it shouldn’t exist now, but the system of gun ownership in America is broken.

A criminal background check is obviously not enough to stop guns from getting into the hands of people with violent tendancies. A potential gun owner’s mental state also needs to be analyzed.

Unfortunately, mental health care (or lack thereof) in the U.S. in another issue entirely.

Now is the time to end the violence and overhaul gun control laws before another 8,697 lose thier lives.