According to a mass shooting tracker featured on outlets such as CNN, MSNBC and The Washington Post, there have been at least 300 mass shootings in the United States this year alone.

This can be blamed on this country’s almost nonexistent gun control laws, which are some of the most relaxed in the developed world.

It’s gotten to the point that instead of trying to increase gun control, many schools have increased security in order to combat potential threats. The Beachwood school district, for example, has placed police officers in every building for the first time this year.

In contrast, the European Union bans automatic firearms, and there are strict rules about firearm ownership. These rules include being at least 18 years of age, having a “good cause” for buying one and not being deemed a danger to society or themselves. Anyone who does not meet these requirements is not legally allowed to purchase or possess a firearm.

Compared to European laws, many states’ laws are downright embarrassing.

Gun advocacy groups like the NRA use the Second Amendment of the Constitution to argue that there is a need for citizens to own extravagant, and quite frankly, unnecessary firearms such as automatic assault rifles.

One thing that these advocacy groups do not take into account is historical context. Back when the Constitution was written, there was no such thing as an AK-47, a weapon that has the capacity to fire up to 600 rounds per minute, and has the potential to wound hundreds. One of the common weapons at the time was in fact a musket, which had the capacity to fire off 2-3 rounds a minute. There was less need for gun control when they had less ability for guns to cause rapid and significant damage.

Recent laws reflect a very pro-gun attitude. Congress allowed  a 1994 ban on assault weapons expire in 2004, which would have made it harder for the assailant in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting to obtain the weapon he used to massacre 20 young children. The so-called “gun show loophole” allows an individual to purchase a firearm without going through the mandatory background checks.

According to The Washington Post, states like California and New York, with stricter gun control laws, have fewer gun-related homicides than more lenient states, like Louisiana and Arkansas.

The U.S. also leads the world in mass shootings, with the occurrence of them having seemingly became a sad, almost daily event.

An additional issue is the glamorization of guns in all forms of American media.

Maybe romanticized images of people using firearms presented in media such as film, television and video games is taking its toll on the internal psyche of Americans, making us more likely to resort to gun violence.

One thing is for sure: the laws surrounding guns are entirely too relaxed. The most recent publicized mass shooting in Oregon killed 10 people and, most frustratingly, the shooter obtained all of his weapons legally.

In order to successfully address this problem, large media conglomerates that have influence over the music we listen to, and the movies and television shows we watch, need to stop championing guns and gun violence as “cool” and “sexy.” Instead, they should show gun culture for what it really is: something that has the terribly destructive power to destroy lives and families.

An example of this was seen in the aftermath of the August 26 murder-suicide of a news crew in Virginia, which left photojournalist Adam Ward, 27, and news reporter Alison Parker, 24, dead, shot to death on air by a disgruntled former employee, who killed himself during the police manhunt.

The Aug. 27 cover of the New York Daily News was shocking enough to get people talking about gun violence. It showed three frames from a first-person video the shooter posted online after the incident. Describing it in words does not do it justice, due to the graphic nature of the cover and the emotions it provokes.

Despite being tremendously disturbing, one of the only real ways we can begin the long process of trying to end mass shootings is with the aid of gut-wrenching images like these, which don’t glamorize firearms in the slightest.

It is sad and disheartening that we have gotten to the point where images such as these need to be published in order to get a reaction out of people.

With stark reminders like the tragic killings of Ward and Parker, perhaps we can finally begin the long road of ending the epidemic of gun violence in this country.