When one thinks of the number 45, there is nothing overtly special about it. It is not the lucky number 7 nor the unlucky number 13. It is not considered a blatantly large or minuscule number. However, when that number is applied to school shootings, forty-five’s connotation changes.

October 1 usually brings thoughts of fall, pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween. Instead, this day brought thoughts of death and feelings of fear. Six days ago in Roseburg, Oregon, 26 year old Chris Mercer decided to open fire on Umpqua’s campus. This school shooting killed 10 people and injured nine. Knowingly or unknowingly, this man had committed the 45th school shooting of 2015.

During the span of nine months and one day, there have been 27 k-12 school shootings and 18 college shootings. There were three separate shootings the day after Valentine’s day which two colleges and one grade school were infiltrated by a gunman.

Mercer was in possession of four guns: three hand guns and one assault weapon. One by one, he had his victims stand up and proclaim their religion. All Christians were shot. Mercer was a 26 year old college student when he decided to kill 10 people, including himself.

Since the Columbine massacre in 1999 there have been 262 school shootings—the Oregon shooting being the latest. The world retaliated against the Columbine shooting and began putting safety measures in place, procedures and emergency actions to be taken when a school is under siege. According to Auburn University at Montgomery, or AUB, the students and staff have three options when a shooter sneaks into the school: run, hide or fight. Other schools have different procedures but the bottom line remains the same: schools have equipped themselves to handle shooters.

Unlike AUB, our school only has one option when a gun threat is made—hide. The doors are locked, the window covered, the lights turned off and the students corner themselves in the classroom out of view. Then there is nothing else to do but wait.

Is this enough? How much more can schools do to protect themselves and their students from the psychopaths that decide to arm themselves? We could use metal detectors much like the airports use, but they don’t come cheap. We could have the police conduct manual searches, but there are not enough police to quickly and effectively search hundreds of students every time they step in and out of the building. How much more can we do to protect our schools? The answer may not be written in stone but like President Barack Obama said, “We’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action.”