Opinion | Want to know the value of 'thoughts and prayers?' Ask Columbine survivors like me

Thoughts and prayers are useless. Its an excuse to do nothing and go on about your day feeling better about yourself. We need to enforce the gun laws on the books and add additional laws. Forced patriotism (patriotic jingoism mixed with nationalism) and prayer in schools is about the dumbest idea ever for school.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."This is America: According to one recent study, 71 percent of us view gun violence as a major issue facing the country, and 45 percent believe it is at a crisis level. Nearly half of our nation today is in a posture of crisis response.

So now that the “thoughts and prayers” have been shared, what can we do together?

First, politicize it. Politicians love to tell us not to “politicize these tragedies” following mass shootings. But that statement itself is a political demand — one that protects the status quo. We should expect political solutions from our leaders immediately. We should demand that evidence-based policies are heard. We should march for our lives.

Not getting political on mass gun violence only risks more of the same. Ask a parent who lost a child to gun violence a simple question: Would you care if an earlier tragedy was politicized if it meant getting your son or daughter back? Of course not. Grief doesn’t have a political affiliation. "...

The right doesn't want these tragedies politicized because then they would have to actually do something. Politicize the hell out of it. Put it on the front page of every newspaper every day. Top story on every news broadcast. Put them on billboards, buses. Keep them in the face of every single person whose only answer is "thoughts and prayers".