How Can We Keep This From Happening Again?

This is a tragic day. Tuesday’s horrific shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, TX, left us, like most of America, once again in shock and disbelief.

19 children and 2 faculty members were lost to a senseless act of violence. Though the facts are still coming out, what we understand so far is that an evil, troubled person shot his own grandmother and then after crashing his car and confronting a police officer, made his way into a Texas elementary school. The rest is just unspeakable.

Their families will never be able to hug their kids again. They’ll never see their smiles. They won’t watch them grow up and have families of their own.

These school shootings shake me to my core. I can’t stand seeing another of these stories, let alone having to get behind the microphone and talk about another one.

What do we do in this situation? We have to stop saying things like “there’s no solution to this.” There ARE solutions. Just to get into our offices, you have to pass through two sets of locked doors – called a mantrap – and armed security. And then again, access to our broadcast studio requires passing through additional security measures. If we can secure a production studio, or a bank, or an airport, or an office building, there’s no reason why we can’t better secure our schools. It defies logic.

And this is not a political issue. This is a common-sense issue. There were a number of red flags surrounding yesterday’s shooter. And no one did anything. No one took the threat seriously. We need to figure out how to handle those issues, and empower people to act, before the tragedy happens.

But in the meantime, we have to start with the “target.” We need to make it much harder to walk into a school with a gun.

There are simple steps that can be taken. We may not be able to prevent all mass shootings, such as concerts and public places, but we should be able to protect our kids. We have to harden the target. Right now it’s harder to walk into a theme park than it is many elementary schools. We have the technology to secure these schools, and even individual classrooms. There should be locked doors during school hours requiring all visitors to be buzzed in, and visible cameras. And we need to have armed, trained, and vetted security personnel on site at every school.

And we’re not here to debate the 2nd Amendment. We’re here to talk about reality. The 2nd Amendment is in the Constitution, and it’s not going anywhere. The truth is bad people can get weapons. You have to meet that as a security threat like you would at an airport. These are complicated problems that must be solved. The first thing that we must do right now is to harden the target – secure our schools.

I believe in prayer. I have experienced how powerful prayer can be. But in these instances, I am here to tell you, prayer is not enough. God gave us brains that we’re supposed to be using. We can’t just keep saying “thoughts and prayers to the victims and families, etc.”

Just this morning I was at my grandchildren’s school, and I made a point to thank the armed security officer for protecting my family, as well as all the others. My grandchildren know these officers. They feel safer with them there. Every child deserves that same feeling. We all need to act, and to pressure the states and federal government to install stronger, proven safety measures, to use new technology, to protect our kids.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even further in-depth analysis of yesterday’s terrible tragedy and what steps we want to see taken to stop this from ever happening again.