The Sandy Hook Newtown, Conn.,school shooting and gun control still top the news.

The first killing in that tragedy was the shooter’s mother so there was obviously parenting problems. The shootings of the psychologist and the principal at the school, which the shooter formerly attended, indicate school problems.

The majority of the mass shootings, if you stop and look at current history, have taken place in schools. Budget cuts have cut school counselors. Psychologists and security provisions initiated more than a decade ago, which may have been able to head off this problem, weren’t there because of budget cuts, yet our government can find billions with which to bribe foreign governments.

The current legislation being passed on gun control is only feel-good legislation, which really wouldn’t have changed anything at Newtown. Inanimate objects can’t be blamed for what people do with them. What we have going on in America is a violence problem, which severely affects deranged people.

There are two areas in the medical field that the government is always responsible for. One is the insane and the other is communicable disease control. The first area is what is in consideration in the Newtown event. No one has addressed what drugs the shooter was taking because he was in therapy. What we have in the final analysis is a people problem, the people who run our society and the rest of us.

The glaring issue in the Newtown example is how do you safeguard children in school? This is an exact question with a simple answer, a doorman. Every other building in our culture, with a sensitive nature, has a doorman to maintain security and keep the peace. Why don’t our schools qualify on this basic working model? Aren’t the children worth basic protection? A doorman wouldn’t have to be armed with lethal force, but they should be able to monitor for problems and be able to lock the doors, possibly two sets of doors, immediately. It’s just common sense.

In the old days, which everybody agrees were better times, that was the job of the school principal. There is always a principal in every school so a budget problem is not the contributing factor.

Edward L. Barlow

Clayton

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