You must ask yourself why this is the age of mass shootings.
Why in 2019, we have produced so many news stories related to the tragedies of mass shooting that this story about text messages has happened more than once.
You may remember Eddie Justice, who texted his mother "I'm gonna die" during the Pulse shootings in 2016 in Orlando, Florida. For three hours, a gunman carried out a rampage against Orlando's largest gay bar and slaughtered 49 people.
And here we are, in 2019, reporting a similar story.
STEM School Highlands Ranch, not far from Columbine High School, suffered a school shooting on Tuesday that left one dead and eight injured.
Owen, an eighth grader at STEM, sent a text to his mother, Cami Brainard, while the shooters were active.
Brainard was at work when she received a text that simply read:
"There were gunshots. We are about to get escorted to leave."
"Where?" she replied.
"Can you call me?"
"No."
"We have to stay quiet."
"Owen are you ok?"
He responded:
"Sort of."
Later, she also shared an audio recording from her son of the terror at the school.
"Knowing that that's my child and that he actually had lived through that ... he's going to be scarred for the rest of his life."
Brainard added:
"I think the more people are forced to see these things, the more exposure that there is for these things, the more people realize that it can happen to them."
Remember, it is 2019, and this story is still necessary.
Do something, reader. You have the power.