Dear Editor:

If we really want to end the shootings in our schools, we need to stop arguing, and actually begin doing the simple things that we already know will make all the difference.

Most importantly, we need to watch the behavior of our sons more carefully, especially pertaining to serious drug or alcohol use, gang membership or desire to join a gang, access to or fascination with weapons, trouble controlling anger, withdrawal from friends and activities, and regularly feeling rejected or alone.

We need to secure our schools against armed invasion in the same way that airports have been secured against terrorism. It will be expensive, but it is also effective and necessary.

We need to stop politically hyping gun legislation. Dr. Keith Ablow, a forensic psychiatrist, has said : “… restricting firearms or increasing background checks fails to address the real problem, which is untreated mental illness … It really has nothing to do with guns, as we just saw in the mass stabbing in Texas, and as we should have learned in 1927 when 38 children were killed with homemade explosives at a school ... This whole debate should be filibustered right off the Senate floor …”

And finally, as Dr. Ablow implies, we need to fix our decrepit mental health system, and motivate everyone, especially students, to report any person who seems to be mentally ill and dangerous.

We already know what will work, so let’s just do it.

Phil Molvar

Southport