An open letter on December 14, 2012

Dear President Obama, United States Congress, Governors, Mayors, and public representatives:

I cried this morning. I'm sure many of you, also cried on this day. The senseless violence that we witnessed in our country today, in Connecticut, threatens to tear the hope from our hearts. There's nothing much that I can do except express my opinion, and my thoughts, through this open letter.

I plead to you, those of you in power, those of you that serve the public. Do something about these acts of violence. No mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt, friend, or child should have to endure such random acts of violence – especially in our schools.

There are approximately 90,000 public schools in the United States. A typical police officer is paid approximately $50,000 per year. It would cost approximately $4.5 billion per year to place one police officer in every public school in the nation. The requested Homeland Security budget for 2013 is $40 billion; the Department of Defense budget for 2013 is approximately $525 billion. Does it make any sense that somewhere between Homeland Security and the DOD we could allocate less than 1% of their combined budget to protect our children in our public schools.

Some will undoubtedly say that this is an overreaction. Perhaps it is, but we have to do something. We can never let this happen again!

I understand that we're in a climate of budget cuts and belt-tightening. I am aware that what happened in Connecticut is a very rare occurrence. I understand that we cannot have armed officers everywhere – in shopping malls, movie theaters, college campuses, and street corners. However, I do think we can afford to place police officers at our public schools.

I understand that by placing an armed police officer at each public school, there is no guarantee that a similar tragedy will not happen again – but if it did, at least there would be a first responder on the scene immediately. Instead of 26 or 28 innocent lives being taken, the police officer could possibly minimize the damage. The danger will still be there. However, if there was or a police officer patrolling every school, it would create a deterrent and the presence that could possibly stop this type of tragedy from happening. The perpetrator might think twice before acting.

Think about all of the wonderful things that the police officer could do at each school. While they are there to protect, they can also serve. They can give lectures about the dangers of smoking, drugs, guns and bullying. They could read to the children. They can be role models for our children to look up to, and to learn from. They can promote all of the good things, our police departments throughout this great nation stand for. They can help teach our children to respect the law, and understand how lucky we are to live in a civil society. The police officer's presence could become an integral part of our child's education.

There is no way that we can politicize this issue enough to stop the NRA and the rights of our citizens to own guns. That battle, I feel is worth fighting, but I'm afraid will produce little change or results. It would just add to the already unfathomable gridlock in our nation's capital.

However, reallocating just 1% of an already approved budget, should be something that we can accomplish!

Sincerely,

Richard Raker