Mass shootings in the U.S. are up by one-third so far versus the same period in 2015 (a shooting is considered "mass" if a minimum of four are wounded). As of Feb. 25, the day of the Excel Industries (Hesston, KS) tragedy, 49 of these events have left 73 dead and 178 wounded, according to PBS.org.

I don’t want to get into a big political brouhaha here, but I do want to let readers know what it’s like on the other end of a gunshot. Even with protection it hurts, and it isn’t pretty.

A company called Miguel Caballero in Bogota, Colombia, makes a line of fashion ballistics products. Its sales mostly are in the Middle East and South America, but Africa is a growing market. And, unfortunately, America is rapidly emerging.

I visited Caballero's headquarters a while back to get a feel for his business - and to feel up-close the impact of a bullet at close range. That’s right, Caballero agreed to shoot me, as he is apt to do from time to time with employees and customers who test his products.

After a brief tour of the factory, I was fitted with a beautiful brown leather jacket. On the surface the garment looks normal, but inside it’s fitted with lightweight flexible panels a quarter-inch thick. The bulletproof compound of nylon and polyester used in construction is patented and secret. Perhaps that’s why the jacket retails for north of $5,000.

Next I was escorted into a large room filled with factory workers behind sewing machines. Some put in earplugs, others made the sign of the cross. Evidently, they had seen this drill before.

First Caballero practiced on me with no bullets in the .38 long revolver. As instructed, each time I clasped my hands behind my back, took a deep breath and tensed my stomach while he counted one, two, three. Each time, he held the gun six inches from me and pulled the trigger on three.

Just before the actual test, he placed a blue sticker on the jacket where he planned to shoot me - a fatty area below my ribs but above the hip - then put on noise-canceling headphones. I put in my orange earplugs.

A nervous hush descended on the room. Caballero carefully placed a single bullet in the chamber - one I had randomly chosen from a box of several - sighed and said, "Ready?" I held my breath and tensed my stomach.

Just as Caballero counted "one," I saw a bright flash and heard a loud crack. It was as if a hot poker burned my skin followed by a blunt, heavy thud the likes of a George Foreman punch.

Stunned, I didn't move in case Caballero would shoot again (he was supposed to fire on three!), but quickly he smiled and lowered the gun. The audience, visibly relieved, went back to their jobs.

Caballero explained that the trial runs were only to gauge my "tensing" routine, and that he had always planned to shoot me on one. A little surprise in this case, he said, was my friend. He also shot point-blank to minimize any chance of my flinching at the last second. The bullet velocity is essentially the same from one foot away or from ten: about 350 meters per second, faster than thunder.

As a participatory journalist my observations that day were many, but simply put: If you have never been on the receiving end of a bullet, you do not want to be, even with protection. The acrid smell of burning powder, the blinding flash, the sound of the crack, the impact of the projectile – all are visceral and sensory overload. And the yellow/green lyme-disease-like stomach bruise, which lasted for weeks afterward, was painful.

Sadly most people who are shot don’t have the convenience of wearing a ballistics garment. Ask the kids at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, the teens at Columbine High School in CO, the theater-goers at Century 16 in Aurora, CO, or the workers at Excel Industries in Hesston, KS.

What I will say is we had better get our collective acts together in this country and stop these mass shootings - or any senseless shooting, for that matter. Argue amongst yourselves how best to do that but, at some point, just do it.