Safety...

I have been unusually quiet these last few days since the elementary school shooting... But really what can you say to a nation that is in love with its guns and refuses to change its laws regarding them?
Just look at other countries's death counts and you don't have to be a genius to know that our country's  is out of whack. The Newton school shooting like others stirs up memories from 36 years ago when I was looking into the barrel of a handgun pointed at me...

Yep during my first year of teaching in South Carolina I was held at gunpoint in the high school registrar's office for the longest two hours of my life. It was one of those cases of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I didn't know the gun wielding student and he didn't know me nor the female student aide nor the registrar in the small office. So why the gun?  The student's girlfriend had decided to break up with him ( she was a former student in the school, now in college) His grandiose plan was to hold someone hostage to get her back. So he took one of his Dad's handguns (his Dad was a police officer) and waving the pistol around was telling us what he wanted after he locked the door behind him.  We were to contact the main office which actually was directly across the hall and tell them his demands via phone. As he cocked the gun and pointed it at each of us, he informed us that he loaded wadcutter bullets and that they could pierce the door as if it was cardboard and we had better not try anything. I reassured him that there was nowhere that we could go as the room was basically the size of a large closet.  His beef wasn't wasn't with the student aide, couldn't he just let her go? No, he replied "we were all staying..."  I did convince him to not point the gun at us and.... eventually persuaded him to hand me the gun at the end of the two hours. He proceeded to remove the bullets and hand me the empty gun.

Unbeknownst to us after the initial call, the office had sent out a 'lock down' code message that the school had an armed intruder. Even that long ago schools had emergency plans to implement for such possibilities. During negotiations, busses were driven to various exits and students hallway by hallway had been evacuated to safety. By the time we walked out of that tiny office two hours later, the entire school was empty besides the squat team police officers. Fortunately no one was hurt.

 OK you can say that was just an isolated incident, a disturbed young man but tragedy could have ensued... I have always wondered what happened to the offender and what precautions his Dad then took with his weapons.

The bottom line dear people is that none of us is 'safe.'  It has nothing to do with G-d in our schools. It has to do with people. People 'lose' it and the last thing you want them to have is access to a gun...

Here is a link to the President's powerful speech regarding the safety of our Nation's children if you  haven't had a chance to hear it...  It's time for us a Nation to make changes. If not now, when?

President Obama's Memorial Speech