“My prayers and condolences,” President Donald Trump tweeted. “Today is a terrible day you pray never comes,” Sen. Marco Rubio said. “Tragic news out of Florida. Please keep the victims…in your thoughts and prayers,’” Sen. Thom Tillis said.

This is a small sample of politicians who receive political and financial gain in decreasing and defunding gun laws and background checks on people trying to obtain a gun. Over and over we see these sentiments surrounding thoughts and prayers and yet they have done nothing to get at the roots of the problem. Solutions include increased background checks, gun safety and control, and even the increase of mental health programs and systems. However, none of these issues is being discussed or funded by the current administration. In fact, in some cases it’s the exact opposite.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a total of 30 mass shooting incidents have occurred in 2018, as of Feb. 14, including the Florida high school shooting on Wednesday. Thoughts and prayers are a nice sentiment, but they are futile and counterproductive. American conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren encapsulates some of this misinterpretation with her recent tweet regarding the Florida shooting: “Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gun owner agenda? My goodness. This isn’t about a gun it’s about another lunatic.”

Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda? My goodness. This isn’t about a gun it’s about another lunatic. #FloridaShooting

— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) February 15, 2018

This is a pattern and one that will continue if we don’t make a change. Thoughts and prayers are an easy way out of a real conversation, a conversation that will respect and protect the lives of children before it’s too late. Thoughts and prayers don’t have to happen at all if we can confront the issue head-on and immediately. Children of America should not have to wait for protection. Policy change on gun control is the way to pay adequate respect for the innocent victims of these atrocities.

Somehow it is never the right time to discuss gun control laws that could make it much harder for criminals and mentally ill people to obtain large guns like semi-automatic rifles. Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the Parkland, Florida, shooting, used a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle to murder 17 students.

Why did this man have a weapon that is meant to kill massively and quickly?

While you may disagree on the certain specifics and nuances of policy change on gun control, I want to ask this question of those who, time and time again, evade the issue of accessibility to guns after mass shootings: Are either the ease of obtaining a gun or the money that benefits your political campaign worth the lives of American children?

If you want to send condolences to victims, do so. If you want to send prayers for victims, do so. But it is naive to think that these sentiments alone are solving anything. The victims from the 30 school shootings this year deserve more. They deserve real change and a discussion about real issues and their real causes. Let’s move forward, not backward.

Sam Miner can be reached at mine0034@stthomas.edu