If we don’t have the will to get guns under control we need to start rethinking security everywhere

Every Monday I walk into an elementary school about an hour after dismissal. The gates to the building are wide open. I walk straight through an empty playground that leads to an open yard where about fifteen kids are running around. Across from them another 15 or so are playing on the asphalt. As I walk up the stairs to the second floor of building seven I get a glimpse of another group of the school with another dozen or so kids.

Meanwhile, the one or two adults assigned to each group has not even acknowledged my presence. In fact, the only person who has asked who I am in the last 4 months was a taciturn janitor in an empty hallway. I showed him my ID and he continued about his business. Meanwhile, the lives of 30 to 50 children were at risk of a crazy lone-wolf attack with a gun or semi or whatever.

I’d say this is a bit paranoid but I remember Sandy Hook. I just lived through the shooting in Ft. Lauderdale. In fact, I was passed by several speeding police vehicles heading for the airport. And one of my ex-soccer players was in the airport at the time of the shooting. So, it’s no longer paranoia. It is a way of living.

No longer can we avoid the horrid truth before our eyes. If we won’t put in place stronger gun controls, then we need to build and upgrade schools with the mindset that at any point a person with a gun can, in a matter of seconds, shoot several rounds into a group of elementary kids. We have to build and upgrade public places with the knowledge that we have a large contingent of the population that is armed and may be mentally unstable.

Clearly, we have been having the wrong conversations. If guns are that important for American society, then we need to forget gun control and think about keeping our people and children safe.

Maybe redoing our whole society around guns is easier than reducing the number of guns and accessibility to them.