My first child started kindergarten today, but the milestone is bittersweet. At a time when Minnesota students and educators are returning to school, our community experienced the unthinkable last week in a place meant for learning and prayer.

The tragedy hit close to home: My kids’ preschool is blocks away and I drove past Annunciation School minutes before the shooting, then heard waves of sirens go by. Two young lives are lost and many others in my neighborhood are physically injured, countless more psychologically scarred.

And yet this sudden proximity to tragedy is an illusion. All of us—all of our children—live with this risk every day. Since Columbine, nearly 400,000 students have been impacted by gun violence at their school. Our country sees magnitudes more school shootings than other industrialized nations.

Along with so many others: We grieve. We are angry. We demand change.

Now, we must direct these feelings into the question: How? As Minnesota prepares for a special legislative session in response to this attack, we must ask: How do we build a future where this doesn’t happen?

That future, experts understand, requires evidence-based solutions and a multi-pronged approach—action on common sense gun laws, on mental health, on designing safe and nurturing schools. No action, no change.

As I hugged my kid goodbye this morning and saw him disappear into his classroom for his first day of American K-12 education, I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of what I was doing. I was entrusting him to a system that I deeply believe in—but which I know is not safe.

Policy cannot heal wounds or bring back the children we lost. But we must ask how policy can make the next act of violence less likely. Demand serious answers. And then take action.