There are no words that will ever be able to comfort the families in Newtown, Connecticut. There's nothing anyone can offer. There is nothing anyone can do. All we can do is let them know that we are thinking of them and mourn with them. I can say that for me personally I am having a hard time feeling anything right now other than numbness. These children, these babies, had their whole lives ahead of them. They had everything to look forward to. Not only did they lose their lives, but we lost their lives. We have no idea what those children might have had in store for the world. There could've been a cure for cancer waiting to be discovered in one of those children. There could've been the next Picasso or Mozart. There could've been a future president.
In the coming weeks and months there will be the obvious discussions about gun violence and possible bans on assault weapons. We all have strong feelings about these issues. We have to balance the Second Amendment with senseless violence carried out by psychopathic killers that use ridiculously powerful assault rifles and handguns that are manufactured to kill. That debate is something that needs to take place, but it will take a long time for that debate to evolve into any sort of policy. What we can do right now to help protect our children is institute safety measures on the front lines of schools. We need to be incorporating metal detectors and more strenuous check in procedures for everyone that enters our schools. We need to be focusing on making our schools and public areas safer with things that can be done right now. Our policy debates cannot be allowed to get in the way of making common sense decisions that will make our country's children safer.
