A man who said he was "almost a school shooter" in the 1990s appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to discuss his desire for gun control and more outreach to troubled youths.
Aaron Stark wrote an open letter this week and read his story aloud in a video, where he said he desired to kill a lot of people and then himself in a mass shooting at his Colorado high school in 1996.
Describing himself as bullied, Stark said he became suicidal and had a "severe lack of love" in his life when he began hiding weapons like knives and shanks. He said the main factor in preventing him from becoming a school shotter, however, was he did not have access to an assault rifle.
"I was almost a school shooter," he wrote. "I am not a school shooter because I didn't have access to guns. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. But people with guns kill lots of people."
MSNBC host Katy Tur read out some of his words and asked him what should happen now in the United States when it comes to guns in the wake of last week's high school mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.
"I think we really need to have a hard look at the effect the guns have," Stark said. "Do we really need to have assault weapons? Do we really need to have people go buy an AR-15 when they're not able to even buy a pistol because they won't pass the background checks?"
Stark said the point of his story was that people should not just focus on guns or mental health at the expense of the other. He encouraged people to focus on "love" and outreach to those who needed the most attention and care.
He relayed that his life was saved when a friend of his reached out to him when she didn't know he was suicidal and invited him to her house for a party.
"When you're in the worst state and you think that no one cares, having someone actually care can make an entire world of difference," Stark said.
"You're worth it, you were worth it, and you're proving that you're worth it right now by coming on and sharing your story," Tur said.