Another horrific school shooting. It’s so sad and heartbreaking. I cannot even begin to imagine the horror that the kids and the parents are going through. There are simply no words to put this into proper perspective. I can only pray for their healing and strength.
As with every shooting incident, fingers of blame are pointed everywhere. In this incident, it may be even worse than past events.
Finger Pointing:
#1- Some good citizen did exactly what we are all encouraged to do. He saw this sick kid’s post on social media and he notified the FBI. The FBI interviewed, of all things, the guy who reported it. They never tracked down the kid. They never even spoke to him. Ridiculous.
#2- Lack of focus on mental illness in the country. No doubt we can do better.
#3- No armed security guard(s) at the school. Schools around the country that have armed security have a better safety record. It seems to me that armed security could reduce the number of injured or killed, but it likely won’t stop the attempted killers.
#4- The standby favorite – Gun Control. You know where I stand on this. I did see an excellent quote this evening though. “In Africa an idiot kills a Lion and they blame the idiot. In America some idiot shoots a human being and we blame the gun.” End Quote.
So as the finger pointing continues and everyone fights over what should be done, our kids will get up in the morning, say goodbye to their parents, and the parents will worry for their safety as they go off school.
The time has long since passed. We need to fix this problem and stop all the chatter and finger pointing. It won’t be cheap but what price would we place on our child? The fact is there is no amount of money we wouldn’t pay to ensure our kid’s safety. While nothing is 100% we could do so much more. We spent billions on climate change for what? This is just one small example of money wasted in this country.
So, what’s the solution? It seems to me, as sad as it is, the time has come when our kids enter their school the same way we all board airplanes. We have to show ID, we are body scanned and our bags are physically checked. When the airplane door shuts, nobody else gets in and we have good reason to feel safe. As I said, nothing is 100% fail safe, but if you think about it, airline safety has a pretty damn good track record. The other thing is how we build our schools. School construction planning should revolve around safety. Secured access. Put open play areas in the middle of the structure so access is protected.
A determined killer can do harm to our kids before school and after school, on the weekends, at a parade, or even in the safety of their own home. Does that mean that we shouldn’t commit to making sure that when our kids are in school, they are safe? Shouldn’t we attempt to control what we can control?
Is securing our schools more realistic than pretending we are going to collect 300 million guns from our fellow citizens? We know the bad guys aren’t going to turn their guns in. Would protecting our kids in their schools be more effective than our trying find and stop every person with mental problems? Wouldn’t this type of security be better than hoping two, or three, or four armed security guards are in the right place when evil unleashes evil? Are we really going to leave our kid’s lives in the hands of the FBI and law enforcement, hoping that they find and arrest every evil sole in this country? Unrealistic. While Washington and the special interest groups argue over the “what ifs”, our kids go off to school in the morning…
To me it’s time for less talking and more doing. These are our kids and enough is enough. The kids should be safe when the school door shuts behind them. For God’s sake, we cannot have someone walk onto school grounds with an AR15 hidden in a bag.
I finish as I started, by praying for every child and family affected by this horror.
“Lord please hold each of these families in your loving arms. Comfort them Lord as only you can. Give them the strength they need to get through each minute, each day, and for all of their lives. Welcome their loved ones Lord to your Kingdom. Take away their tears, their fears and fill them with your love. Hold them close until we can once again be near them. In the name of Jesus Christ our saviour, Amen.”
