A phone call from the superintendent doens't really comfort a parent to know how the school plans to keep the children safe during the school day.

Something has to be DONE about stricter gun laws, whether the NRA likes it or not. President Obama said this evening that something has to be done, regardless of political parties and he is right!

Parents who are looking for resources for talking to your kids about todays shooting should go to the Fred Rogers Institute website. The Institute, started in memory of Mr. Rogers (PBS host of Mr Rogers Neighborhood) has some excellent tips for talking to your kids about tragic violent events like this. Hug your kids and pray for those who are lost.

Why can we not have an officer at EVERY school, EVERY day? That would be a better use of resources than having them shoot radar for someone going 10 miles over the limit!!

With 315 million people in the country you're bound to have crazies. Yep, life ain't fair,especially when such tiny innocent souls are snatched at Christmas, leaving moms and dads with hearts shredded by grief, but abrogating the Second Amendment aint gonna level the playing field. Matt is spot on, criminals always have guns somehow. Heck, even local HS students have been know to "carry" illegally. Are these duly registered pieces ? I think not. There is only one sure fire way to lower body counts in these horrific situations, one proven to work above everything else. Had just one person on scene been carrying a gun, there might have been loss of life, which is never acceptable, but the gunman would have been stopped sooner, perhaps before he got as far as the kindergarten class. The same goes for the mall shooter in Colorado. Had either one of these mental defectives thought they were facing gunfire themselves, who knows if either massacre would have been carried out. Guns in themselves aren't lethal, you have to add people to make them a murder weapon.

Karen, I'm Pro responsible gun ownership as well, however, I don't agree that arming teachers or administrators is the right move. School Resource Officers should be mandatory in EVERY school to protect our children as well as entry procedures that prevent people from just walking in off the street. Notice I used the plural form of Officers; meaning more than one assigned to each school. I've always said that a nation that does not value Teachers and Cops (and pay them what they deserve) doesn't value its most important resources. Guns, banning or increasing the carrying of, isn't the answer, it's in better management, training, and allocation of resources. Once we realize what our priorities are we can better allocate finances to cover and prevent these types of incidents from happening as often. You'll never stop them all, but the effort should be to reduce them.

The guns were LEGALLY registered to the MOM. Gun laws would not of stopped this pyscho.

Kelly
How about a two door system ? The first door would have a metal detector and when that goes off the staff could call police and not buzz the offender into the school. A camera would be good to identify the persons involved.
Or the first door could lock behind them trapping the person in the foyer. I would suggest bullet proof glass on both doors so the offender could not shoot themselves in or out.
It may seem extreme but we have to protect the schools.

Our gun laws actually worked. He tried to buy a gun the Tuesday before the shooting at Dicks Sporting Goods but was turned away.

I wait at school every day for my 2 children and I saw no police officer stationed anywhere on premises. Was he undercover?

AACPS increases security only after a tragedy the elementary should have a RSO officer just like the high and middle schools