We need to ask ourselves this simple question:Why do we love guns more than our children?We are often said not to react with your emotions or do not legislate your emotions.#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');If you have ever been a parent; the first belch of crying, then you know what love is.Then you will know what the will of laying down your life is.Then you will know you would take a life to defend his or hers; even if it means seeing yourself on the other side.Public Schools should have the sense of security and have the guaranteed promise of sending them back to us.From Columbine to Sandy Hook to the Covenant School shooting; America has our own enduring terrorism. We have 9/11s every year.Then we go to our beaches on the 4th of July to grill some cheeseburgers and drink our beers and act like nothing is wrong.When we went to a literal war over just one 9/11. Nearly 7,000 Americans died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Many are tortured from the trauma from the war; coming home with physical and mental wounds. We already have a costly, underfunded inept and ineffective mental health system.To see parents’ faces when their sons and daughters did not come home from the war; to see anxious and anticipated parents waiting to see their child come out from a shot up school.We come to see that on our news and social medias every day.It is time we ban military-style assault weapons. They do not belong on our communities.And we must demand real action on mental health. Not just talk about it, but reform and legislate.Terry Dean BrooksCrescent City googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });