Nation unites behind push for gun laws

The reverberations from Parkland, Fla., continue to resound across the nation.

That’s what happens when a troubled young man walks into a school and opens fire, killing 17 people — most of them fellow students — and wounding a couple of dozen others.

And no one is surprised by it.

Yes, it happened again. Now what? A lot, actually. This is not our first trip down this grisly road. We lived through the horror of Columbine. Then five years ago the national conscience was set on fire by the slaughter of the innocents when another troubled young man killed his mother, took her semi-automatic rifle, then walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and started shooting. He killed 20 students and six adult staff members.

They were kids. Children. Most 6 or 7 years old. The nation reeled. But not much changed. This feels different. This doesn’t feel like it is going to go away.

We have the blood of too many kids on our hands. It’s become too hard to wash off.

This time 17 were killed inside Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., not far from Fort Lauderdale.

Again the weapon was the same — an AR-15 rifle.

Again the nation asked the question why.

But new voices have been added to the mix — and people are listening.

Young people — conjuring up visions of the social activism of their grandparents in the ’60s — are now leading the call for meaningful change in the nation’s gun laws.

In Washington, President Trump has voiced a push for more stringent background checks, supporting a bill that has been bottled up in Congress.

Tuesday he sent a memo to the attorney general urging a push to ban so-called “bump stocks,” which can turn a semiautomatic rifle and turn it into an even more devastating killing tool, something akin to a machine gun.

It was the device used to rain terror down on an unsuspecting crowd at a concert on the Vegas strip.

Wednesday the president sat down for a “listening session” with children, some of whom have been harshly critical of his silence since the shooting, as well as some who took part in a “die-in” outside the White House.

Young people are planning a national march on Washington next month to keep the heat on the issue — and on our representatives.

Back home in Florida, hundreds of students boarded buses and made the 400-mile jaunt to the state capital in Tallahassee to push for stronger gun laws. They got there just in time to see their Legislature reject just such a measure. Undeterred, they vow they are not going away.

In this region, a familiar voice has been raised with a concrete suggestion on how to protect kids in schools.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood believes it’s time to consider arming some school personnel. He suggests some pre-selected and specially trained volunteer teachers and support staff, or some type of trained force.

It is not the first time we’ve heard this idea. We haven’t always been enthralled with the idea of actually putting guns into the schools.

Chitwood is well aware that the notion is going to be controversial. But it’s a conversation we believe it’s time to have.

Speaking of conversation, state Sen. Tom McGarrigle was planning to sit down with school officials yesterday to talk about school safety.

Our schools and law enforcers have done a lot to safeguard students.

In response to the Columbine shooting, area district attorneys started annual Safe Schools Summits, with the goal being stopping a problem before it starts.

Many schools also now have emergency buttons that put the school in direct contact with 911 and first responders, enabling a quick response to an incident involving an armed intruder.

There also is word that local anti-gun violence groups are planning to charter buses to take interested young people to a national youth march in Washington in March.

Like we said, this time just feels different.

Mourning the loss of children will do that to you.