Its About the Children!

Can we just focus on the children? Not guns. Not mental illness. Not police, security guards or teachers. And especially not politicians or their incessant and never-ending rants about “gun control” or “gun rights.”

I believe most people of good will, regardless of their political affiliation, who are aware of the horrendous shooting in nearby Uvalde, Texas, truly care about one thing – the future safety of our children.

If you’re like me, you probably have children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews that you wanted to hold a little tighter this past week. You reflected on how quickly and senselessly a precious, young life could be extinguished. Your heart literally ached for the parents and family members of those killed.

Once the shock wore off, you became angry and as you received more information each day about what transpired, your anger turned to utter dismay and disgust for what, at this present time, seems to be multiple failures of system(s) whose jobs are to protect and defend.

Let’s talk about that and how we move forward to ensure our children are truly safe in every single school building in America. While the gun debate rages, how about leaders with conscience, regardless of which side of the isle, sit together and discuss real and immediate solutions. We know the gun debate and any legislation related to guns will continue to drag on for years. There will be lawsuits and counter lawsuits and on and on it goes. Oh, they may be able to make some changes but at the end of the day, law abiding citizens will have more of their freedoms taken while criminals will still roam the streets with any gun they want.

So, why can’t our leaders just put aside their differences – especially the gun debate and focus on solutions that can be implemented immediately. Here are just a few that I’m sure every single American would agree with:

Implement and strongly enforce secure entry and exit points in all school properties.

Hire expertly trained armed security guards to patrol those entry and exit points, as well as school parking lots and playgrounds.

Implement aggressive security protocols for all individuals who enter school buildings. (Metal detectors, photo ID, etc.)

*All of these protocols have been in place for decades for politicians, executives, celebrities and just about every person who considers their life ‘precious.’

Well, what about our precious children? They should be first and foremost on the most protected list!

Other great but hotly debated solutions are:

Arm teachers and staff who have been trained in active shooter response.

Make sure every potential shooter knows that each school is armed and ready to defend its children.

This is my personal favorite. As someone who is a former teacher and who has been shooting all types of guns since I was 11 years old, at this point in time, I would never want to be in a school building or any unsecured public building unarmed. With the current threats in our nation and the extreme rise in crime, unarmed teachers and staff are literally sitting ducks.

I haven’t addressed the shooter or how to stop anyone who would do something this heinous. Why? Because we will never be able to stop evil people from causing harm. Evil will always find a way to bring death and destruction. Our response can only be to find legitimate and effective ways to protect and defend from that evil.

It’s sad that we must have this discussion in what has historically been the best and one of the safest countries in the world to live. Our America is not the America of our parents and grandparents. Our children are not as safe in school, playgrounds, or neighborhood sidewalks. We can, and should be asking how did we get to this point? I would love to explore (if there was room in this article) the importance of faith, family, and fathers in the home, along with a return to morality and decency. It’s no secret that our society is permeated with images and messages of perversion, violence, and hate. We are deeply divided, and this division will take years (if ever) to undo.

Until then, we must approach the safety of our children with reality. The reality is bad people do bad things, but we can protect the innocent from the bad if we are just willing to set aside our differences and seek solutions together.

Let’s focus on the children..

Lynn Haueter is the Bandera County Republican Party Chair. She lives in Bandera with her husband, Bob, and their Boston Terrier, Bandit. She is a wife, mama bear and grandmama bear.