... but banks still have armed guards and tight security. If we can post armed guards to protect pieces of paper we say have value, then we can post armed guards to protect our children.
When was the last time anyone was in a bank that had a real armed guard at the door? Perhaps in major metropolitan areas, but certainly not in smaller areas.
The bags of money have an exploding dye pack in them, and the tellers just hand them over no questions asked. Nobody shoots it out.
I was actually inside a NationsBank in San Francisco several years ago that was robbed while I was in an account manager's office. All he did was look at his phone, say excuse me, get up and close the office door, then ask me to sit and wait while he made a call. He was on the phone listening intently for several minutes saying yes, no, yes, yes, no, and never giving me any indication what was happening. (Other than obviously something was very wrong.)
After a few minutes he apologized, opened the door, explained the bank had just been robbed, and he had kept me there for safety. Standard policy.
Steal a million dollars in paper money from a bank and the treasury replaces it to the bank. Steal one life in a shoot out and no one replaces it, ever.
Yes, we need answers. We need policies. We need solutions. But the bank analogy fails.
We need better access to mental health resources in this country. And quite honestly, as one married to a mental health provider, I know that we need to modify the way people get "tagged for life" with mental issues. Grief counseling because your sister or brother who was estranged from the family took their own life can get the wrong check box on your medical insurance and you'll get blocked from gun ownership. My wife is very careful about what she does and doesn't record in a medical chart. You have to put enough to get the insurer to pay, but you do not want to put so much that inaccurate BS follows the patient around for decades.
The system is broken. So, as above, start the petition for better mental health services.
MB