It's a been a heartbreaking last few weeks here in the United States, with mass shootings occurring on July 28, August 3, and August 4.

What is becoming of our nation? The US continues to rank disturbingly low on the Global Peace Index scale, coming in at 128 out of 163 countries. The US is home to five of the world's most violent cities.

Despite these grim statistics, fewer violent crimes are occurring in the US overall.

But there is still a tremendous amount of room for improvement.

Mass shootings seem to be here to stay.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks shootings and their characteristics in the US, defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator(s), are shot in one location at roughly the same time. By that criteria, there have been 255 mass shootings in this country so far in 2019. To put this in perspective, today is the 217th day in 2019.

We've had more mass shootings than days this year.

Mass shootings are not anything new. They have been occurring since at least the 1920s. There is no standard, widely-accepted definition for what constitutes a mass shooting, which makes gathering accurate statistics challenging. Some sources say these events are occurring more frequently, some say they aren't – and still others say they are happening less often but are more deadly now.

But it doesn't really matter, does it? The fact that they happen at all is deeply troubling.

In the wake of a tragedy, it is easy to find ourselves slipping into feelings of desolation and hopelessness. While it is important to study the minds of mass shooters and others who are prone to violence for the sake of preventing tragedies, it is also important to take some time to recognize the courageous individuals who step in to help during these events.

I know that many people believe these mass shootings are false flags (and it certainly is possible that at least some of them are), but for the purpose of this article, we will take things at face value, and focus on people who try to help others during these incidents.

I feel it is important to mention that I am personally very pro-gun rights. Many people tend to blame guns for these tragedies rather than the individuals who committed the atrocities. I think that is a copout – it is easier to blame inanimate objects and call for the government to do something (typically in the form of useless gun control laws – since when do criminals obey laws?) than it is to take a deep look at the possible root causes of these horrible crimes. What drives people to mass murder? What can be done to reduce or eliminate these events? Those are tough questions that do not have simple answers.

Guns are not the problem – people are – but that is a complex topic that is beyond the scope of this article.

While mass shootings expose us to the worst of humanity, they also expose us to the best – the brave people who put their own lives on the line to save others.

There are still a lot of good people out there.

Glendon Oakley, a 22-year-old Army serviceman, was shopping at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso on Saturday morning when a child ran up to him and said there was a shooter at the nearby Walmart. Oakley said he didn't take the boy's claims seriously at first, but knew it was real when he began to hear gunfire. He said he immediately went into combat mode and began to grab as many children as he could to get them out of harm's way, reports ABC News:

"I did that because that's what I was trained to do. That is what the military has taught me to do," he told reporters Sunday. "But I really want you guys to focus on the people that are actually grieving through this. Yes, I'm grieving, but I'm not the one that lost a family member. Yes, it feels like I have lost one. But they are the ones that need to be the [focus]."

Every bit of Oakley's interview moved me, but I found this bit remarkable:

"Don't be afraid to put others before yourself."

We could use more of that mentality, couldn't we?

Surely there were others who stepped up to help out during this event, like this woman:

A Walmart employee told KTSM in El Paso that she was working by the self-checkout when gunshots rang out.

The employee, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, Leslie, said she initially thought boxes had been dropped.

"I thought it was just like loud boxes being dropped or something, until they got closer and closer," she said. "That's when I looked at my co-worker, and we looked at each other like shocked and scared."