This week, another school shooting took place in Florida, and 17 people including children lost their lives.

We are just seven weeks into 2018, and so far, there have already been eight school shootings in the U.S., which have resulted in injury or death.

The numbers are even more staggering when you include the more than 94 gun-related deaths and 156 people injured because of the more than 200 school shootings incidents since Sandy Hook in 2012.

So I ask myself, is this a gun control issue, and do we start putting constraints on our second amendment?

Is this a mental health issue, and are we, as a country, providing the resources to treat those that suffer?

Could this be the result of the inordinate amount of violence accessible through the Internet or video games? I have often thought this could potentially make a person numb to killing.

Does the Internet make it too easy to buy a gun?

I mean, what if the cost of buying weapons were so great, it could deter some purchases, certainly to youth? During prohibition, the Tommy gun was publically available, but sales were miserable because of its cost.

I also wonder if our sense of entitlements and freedoms in our school system are making it virtually impossible for administrations and teachers to do their jobs. I have talked with teacher-friends in the past that were scared to reprimand students for fear of litigation.

Apparently, some parents are unwilling to hear that their child is acting out, and they choose to place blame on our educators. I think this, too, could be an element as to why shootings are happening.

As a nation, could we be losing respect for those in authority and are becoming so focused on self and self-gratification and money and status that our humanity is waning?

And I also ask myself, are those in leadership positions failing us? Why has Congress not formed a task force to address school shootings?

They spend an inordinate amount of money and time putting together tasks forces, committees and investigations to look into their own blundering, which has become a debacle. Maybe if they spent as much time trying to help the nation with this crisis as they do jockeying for power, we would see a different outcome.

But until things in Washington change, I guess the rest of us will be left holding the bag and tearfully watching as our children get picked off one-by-one.

I wonder how many more will have to die before something is done? It is past time to act, but until answers come, I will continue to send prayers to those in Florida and pray that God will watch over the ones I love.

“Sometimes when faith is running low

And I cannot fathom why things are so…

I walk alone among the flowers I grow

And learn the “answers” to all I would know!

For among my flowers I have come to see

Life’s miracle and its mystery…

And standing in silence and reverie

My faith comes flooding back to me!”

— “Finding Faith in a Flower”

by Helen Steiner Rice

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.