A few weeks ago another school shooting took place in our country, leaving thousands of school children such as myself, our teachers, and our families fearful that schools are very unsafe places to be. We actually realize more and more that our schools are one of the biggest targets in our nation for mass killings.

Many people want to blame guns, but I don’t believe that guns are the problem. Guns are the only thing that would be able to stop someone with a gun, and so I believe we need to be protected by trustworthy and trained adults inside of our schools with concealed weapons, armed and ready to help us if our school becomes a target.

The main cause of the problem is that there are many kids who have mental and emotional problems, and they choose to take their anger and frustrations out on innocent victims. This is a problem that needs to be helped, but it is much harder to do than improving our school’s safety. These mass shootings have happened too many times. Since Columbine in 1999, there have been 25 fatal, active school shootings at elementary and high schools in America. It is alarming that our schools still are not equipped with the proper security to control these situations.

One problem is finding the money to install proper security systems. A few years ago, our state of Colorado legalized marijuana with the promise that a good percentage of the money made would go to benefit our public schools. This has not turned out to be the case. I would like to see a large percentage of that money used to benefit our education, in ways such as installing metal detectors and better security systems in our schools. We have secured airports, museums, and all other government buildings to make them safer. Why haven’t we gone to greater lengths to make schools full of innocent children, the future of our country safer places? These horrifying acts have happened too many times. It is time to prioritize our children.

I hope that our leaders will be able to plan solutions and funding to improve the security of our schools. It isn’t practical to restrict guns because if someone wants to kill they will still find a way to do it, and I believe a gun is still our best defense against another gun. We have already used solutions in other buildings that have helped control these issues. More advanced security systems. It is important that the future of our country is protected to the best of our abilities.

Thank You,

Keegan Huffaker

6th grader at Centauri Middle School