On Thursday, May 11, I received a rather urgent and unnerving call from my daughter who whispered into her cellphone that she was in a school backroom under lock-down, huddling with her high school classmates while police swarmed over school campus in search of a reported gunman with a rifle threatening the school.
She said she could not talk long or louder for fear of their being discovered.
Though I could barely hear her, I detected fear in her voice.
Was this the call to say “Goodbye, I love you?”
It was a prank call after all that led to this, but as a parent, it felt very real.
Haven’t we parents been rehearsing for the day when we receive such a call.
I could only ask myself what I could do, rush to the school to be close to where she was in hiding, hoping no violence would ensue?
It’s a feeling of helplessness that really got to me, knowing that this same scene was being repeated probably every day somewhere at some school or shopping mall or church or store somewhere in the U.S.
What a world out of balance we now live in today, with AR-15 assault-style rifles in more than a million insecure hands- while what can and should be done is not being done.
This is much more than any individual’s mental health problem.
It’s a national mental health issue that needs addressing.
Let’s get sane.
The right to bear arms shouldn’t include assault weapons.
Alfredo Qarto
Port Angeles