Hope.

Shortly after the shooting, I saw someone on Facebook write, "If only one of those teachers had a hand gun." And I felt even sadder than before.

It's so deeply troubling to me that some Americans truly believe the answer to gun violence is more gun violence. The killer's mother was an experienced rifle owner, yet she could not defend herself against her son. Do people really believe that a kindergarten teacher would have been able to stop the massacre had she possessed a hand gun? Would you really feel safe sending your kids to school where teachers are concealing weapons? If so, I think you have gone mad. And madness is one of the key problems here.

Perhaps if we lived in a society where young men and boys were taught how to express their emotions in non-violent ways, in a society where people had access to mental healthcare and weren't stigmatized for being ill, we would not have to heavily arm school teachers to protect themselves against angry, confused, and sick people.

I am anti-gun; that cannot come as a surprise to anyone. But there are a lot of conversations we, as a nation, need to be having in addition to questioning gun laws (or lack thereof). And it seems like finally, finally, we are starting to have these conversations. While I'm on the one hand disturbed by some people's reactions to the shooting, I am on the other hand hopeful that we are moving toward positive change.

Fingers crossed.