This past week our nation experienced yet another school shooting. Another community is permanently altered by gun violence occurring at a school. This time the shooting was in Parkland, Fla., but all too recently that school shooting was just next door in Aztec.
In the near 20 years since Columbine, we all should have learned by now that a solution is not coming from Washington. Our reality is very clear. If the deaths at Sandy Hook, including 20 elementary school children ages 6 and 7, weren’t the catalyst for action at the national level, nothing ever will be.
Preventing a shooting inside a Durango school doesn’t have to be as daunting as one might think.
Right now you can walk from your office down to the La Plata County courthouse on East 2nd Avenue, go through a security check and walk into a secure building. Have you noticed that we don’t have near daily shootings inside courthouses? Why? Because we prioritize and secure our courthouses.
The irony of the situation is – those adults working in the La Plata County courthouse are protected from an active shooter while our children in District 9R’s schools are left as sitting ducks.
Providing for the safety of our children at school doesn’t have to be a divisive issue. No one’s guns have to be taken away. If gun owners are okay with securing courthouses, airports, sporting events, etc, one would certainly think everyone could get behind the idea of securing schools.
Dan Snowberger, please give our children the same protection that our community affords the adults working at our courthouse.
Heath Anderson
Durango
