As I write this, another horror has been visited upon us;  a madman has walked through an elementary school in Connecticut, killing twenty children as young as five years old, and seven adults before turning a gun on himself. The survivors, teachers and staff present during the shooting, and the parents of the children killed have a hard, lonely road ahead to a resolution some may never find.

Outside of that circle the country seems to be gearing up for an all too familiar repeat of an argument that will fall out along familiar lines of restrictions to guns and rights to possess them.

I think we should try a different approach to the problem, and offer these facts for consideration;

1. There are approximately 800,000 law enforcement personnel in the United States; Federal, state and local;
2. In most crimes involving murder, the law officers act mainly as historians; they record what happened; the police apparently arrived at the Conn. school after the killer had shot himself. This is no criticism of the police; they sped to the scene and rushed in without hesitation, ready to put themselves between those children and danger. There is a hard truth in the saying;  ‘When seconds count, the police are minutes away.’

3. There are about 8,000,000 private citizens with a Licence to Carry permit in the USA. These are people who have passed a background check and taken a required course on handgun use and safety.

4. We have 23,000,000 veterans of military service in this country; approx. ten percent are combat veterans; trained in the safe and effective use of firearms.

We guard those things we consider valuable. It is common to see armed guards protecting money, jewels, celebrities, nuclear plants, and – God help us – politicians.

Why on earth do we build the best school facilities possible, staff them with the best teachers we can find, then fill them with hundreds of our most precious, irreplaceable possessions – our sons and daughters – then to satisfy a foolish, stupid political prejudice, pass laws forbidding the protection of our children?

Instead of asking all the wrong questions; why did he do this? How did he get the weapons, when Connecticut has the fifth most stringent guns laws among the states?

Let us ask a different question – – Why was NO ONE in the school, teachers, janitors, principals, able to respond in kind to this madman? ?

Why in a country with 23,000,000 military veterans;
8,000,000 License to Carry permit holders;
hunters, marksmen, sport shooters without number;
Why have we allowed misguided politicians to so restrict the possession and use of firearms that a monster can walk into a mall, a theater or a school and unleash the hellish demons in his soul without fear of anyone being able to shoot back?

We are a clever and creative people. A way can be found to stop these horrors before they can begin. Let it become common knowledge that  every school in this land has at least six or more trained and armed people who are there daily, able and willing to stand between their students and danger.
Let malls and restaurants, businesses of every kind publicise that License to Carry holders are welcome among their customers.

In all of human history, there has never been a piece of paper made, a clever enough arrangement of words found, a law – statute or ordinance passed that could stop a determined man from killing.
Only one thing on all this earth will stop such a beast – another determined man.