Guns are not bad, guns in the hands of mentally ill, criminals, terrorists and gangsters are bad.

By Guest Column -- Merideth White —— Bio and Archives February 17, 2018

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Guns are not bad, guns in the hands of mentally ill, criminals, terrorists and gangsters are bad. While gun bans might provide a false sense of security, the fact remains that all of the above have access to weapons, or can build them. Could we all agree that isolation in society is preventing people from speaking out when there are warning signs? Could we agree that mental illness is at the root of most of the shootings? Could we all agree that perhaps school need to be hardened targets not soft targets? There are things we can agree on, if we will only stop being so "my way or the highway" about it. Both sides are passionate. Both sides have some legitimate arguments. Even though I firmly believe that you cannot prevent people from getting weapons if they want them, even though I believe that political correctness prevents people from identifying potential shooters, and even though I think in all of the cases, someone dropped the ball, I also believe we have to take a step forward. That step being to find common ground. This latest shooting was done by a person who had no right or permission to be on campus. Could that meeting of the minds be a commitment to securing our schools? Who can disagree with that?