“Thoughts and prayers” is a perfectly acceptable response to tragedies for 99.99% of people you know.

I literally cannot affect any substantial change on a macro level. Sure I can call my representative, but by every measure it’s a waste of time. There is virtually no evidence to suggest that my individual phone calls or emails to even my local county leaders will make a difference. There are thousands of other people who are represented by my elected officials who have different opinions — and thousands of dollars from their donors — so my one voice just doesn’t carry any weight.

So when people want to mourn such tragic incidences, thinking and praying for those negatively affected is something they can actually do. It's no different than putting a Ukraine flag in your profile pic, posting that you got the vaccine, wearing an "I Voted" sticker, or sharing any other number of hashtags.

Plus, I don’t agree with the positions of most of those who bash “thoughts and prayers” and say there needs to be change, because they usually mean there needs to be submission to their will, to what they believe is change. So those who bash “thoughts and prayers” probably don’t want those of us expressing them to call our representatives anyways, because we’d just admonish them to preserve what we believe are our natural rights.

On an individual level, I’m just more determined to always carry every time I leave the house, and to hit up the range to improve my ability to protect people if I’m ever in a dangerous situation.