University of Texas Sharp-shooter Kills 14. Shooter Murders 32 at Virginia Tech. “Yale Gunman Kills 8”.

When Charles Whitman started shooting from the UT tower (right) in Austin, TX, on August 1, 1966, most of us would have never considered such a thing possible. It was shocking that someone would open fire on strangers, killing so many. By the time Seung-Hui Cho went on his rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, we were all too used to this kind of story. The fact that the horror of Sandy Hook, CT, where 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adults, did nothing to change the culture of gun violence in this country shows how complicit we have become in this madness.

Today gun violence came as close to me as I would ever want it to. I took part in an emergency preparedness drill run by Yale’s Director of Emergency Management, Maria Lavandier Bouffard, and her hard working staff. The headline above should be labeled "This is only a drill."

I was a volunteer actor; in the morning I played the father of a Yale freshman; unable to reach my son after hearing the news, I drove up from New Jersey in a near-panic. Luckily for my character, the boy was found safe. Many more parents were not so fortunate. Eight families lost someone in the drill; many more were injured.

In the afternoon I played the brother of a Yale employee who was shot and taken to hospital where he was pronounced “critical but stable.” Another volunteer played my brother’s wife and she and I portrayed nervous, scared family members being informed and consoled by Yale staff.

The day was far more intense than I expected it to be. Even though I knew “this is only a drill,” the emotion welled up repeatedly. It’s the disturbing age we live in. Everything depicted today was entirely believable and all too real.

I am honored to have taken part and I applaud Yale’s initiative in running such a large scale drill – hundreds of people were involved – but I deplore the fact that it is necessary.

And I deplore the NRA for continuing to deny their culpability in the madness that is the gun culture of America in the twenty-first century. It is time to stand up to the NRA. It is time to outlaw the manufacture or sale of guns. It is time to repeal the second amendment.