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Last year my wife and I were picking up my daughter at her high school for lunch. We were in my Jeep in the parking lot in the first row, and we were watching my daughter walk through the grass between the office and the parking lot when shots rang out. I am a Marine, I own firearms; I know what gunshots sound like. My daughter looked at us with this puzzling look. Five or six seconds later the school announcement system went on saying the school was on emergency lock down. My kid just froze dead in her tracks not knowing what to do.
Nothing will put the fear of god in a parent more than this situation.
It turns out it was a police shooting at a fast food restaurant a few blocks away.
Something needs to be done here. It's so much more than protecting kids in school. It's people in shopping malls, at the movies, at church....
Security at schools is not the answer. If I recall correctly the Sandy Hook Elementary School had advanced security protocols in place. The only way to be admitted into the school was after a visual and ID screening through a video monitor. The gunman got past that and shot everyone in the office. My kid's middle school has a similar system with a huge metal fence around the school but anyone can pull their car right up to the fence, climb on the car, and jump right over it.
There are simple solutions to this. The first step is outlawing assault rifles that shoot 180 rounds per minute, such as the AR15 does. NO ONE outside of the military needs to shoot 180 rounds per minute.
There is so much more we can do also. We can restrict firearms to people over twenty-one years of age - if we cannot trust them to drink responsibly, we shouldn't trust them to own firearms. Anyone on a terrorist watch list should not be able to own a firearm - this is common sense. We need to fix our mental health system and people such as this nineteen year old kid can get help, and make it free. We need better screening, more restrictions on purchasing firearms, and so forth.
Something needs to be done.
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