Dear Editor,

Our children are our greatest and most important natural resource and our greatest hope for a better and happier world of tomorrow.

They belong to all of us and must be protected by us even if it means giving up our own life to do so. Those brave teachers who died during that terrible school shooting and that brave school bus driver are all American heroes.

Here are some ways that we might want to protect our children:

Give to all law officers every possible advantage — weapons, equipment, training, etc. — and give to our judges the power to put these killers away.

If a mental case, place them in a very secure mental hospital.

[Install] school security systems that include video cameras [and] doors that you have to be buzzed in.

Make it a federal crime for those who bring guns and ammo into our schools or on a school bus.

Add three questions to all applications forms — do you know this person, has this person done business with you before, do you believe this person has answered all questions truthful?

Install panic buttons with SPS system on all school buses.

Hire security guards for all schools — armed or not — up to the parents and school boards.

We must all write to and call both Congress and the President and tell them to do these now, not next week or next month or next year, Now, Now! Now! Tell Congress and the President to get their butts in gear, and get it done. A child lost is one child far too many. That we cannot and will not suffer through and endure another school shooting. [It] is indeed up to all of us to protect our children.

David Edwards,

Pomeroy, Ohio