Mitchell Dworet is an outgoing real estate agent from a busy part of Florida. Her 17-year-old son Nicholas went to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Melissa Willey on the other hand is a reserved stay-at-home mother of nine from a small town in southern Maryland. Her daughter Jaelynn, 16, went to Great Mills High School.
These women don't have much in common except that both their kids were on a high school swim team, and now both of those kids are dead, Time Magazine reported.
Nicholas was killed during a shooting at his school in February and one month later, Jaelynn was shot to death by a fellow student from her school.
According to Business Insider, this year alone, there have been 323 mass shootings, as counted by Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot or killed, not including the gunman.
The parents of these children are connected by devastating means — because they decided to send their child to school one day and then never saw them again.
It's an invisible network connecting hundreds of grieving parents across America, reported Time Magazine, explaining there is no organisational structure, no roster of names, but only one heartbreaking criteria to fit the group.
"It's a club you spend your whole life hoping you won't ever become a part of," Nicole Hockley told Time Magazine. Her son Dylan, 6, was killed in the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. "But once you're in, you're in."
Gun control is one of the most divisive issues in American politics with opponents of regulatory arguments, fearing a loss of safety.
They argue that restricting the right to bear arms would leave citizens unable to protect themselves, with laws varying from state to state.
According to reports, under federal law, long-gun possession is allowed starting at age 18, and those younger can possess guns given to them by parents or guardians but they must have written consent.
The parents of students killed have become advocates for gun-safety legislation, including those who lost children in the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 students and six adults dead.
The deadliest high school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas on February 14 — which overtook the Columbine massacre — sparked walkouts, protests, and an anti-gun violence movement led by students, including those from Parkland.
But the members of the club don't all agree on how to prevent gun violence in schools, Time Magazine reported, with some believing the answer lies not in "endless discussions of gun control" but in expanding access to mental-health care and tightening school security.
While others believe in limiting access to weapons.
"I believe in banning assault weapons, and the next guy may not believe in any gun reform," Ms Dworet told Time Magazine. "But I will never stand there and go at it with any parent."
There are 44 American states that have a provision in their state constitutions similar to the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to keep and bear arms.
