The recent school shooting by a 16-year old boy in Oregon killed 3 innocent young children, a schoolteacher and a seriously wounded seven-year-old child clings to life. How heart-breaking and senseless!

There have been 52 school shootings in America in 2026, and reportedly 365 mass shootings in total, with 361 people killed and 1553 wounded in 2026 as of September 30. Lots of thoughts and prayers have been offered by legislators, but there still does not appear to be any solid movement to amend the precious 2^nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Amending the Amendment to protect countless innocent lives is apparently not a priority.

In Bend, Oregon a brave female teacher tackled the killer, who was then shot by an armed citizen, undoubtedly saving even more kids from being killed. Some would argue that the armed citizen’s actions are proof positive of the validity of the 2^nd Amendment. That undoubtedly worked in this case, but what happened in the other 264 mass shootings this year, in a country that has more guns than people?

Yes, armed citizens may prevent deaths on occasion as above. But it’s a rarity and it does bring additional risks. There have been “blue on blue” shootings in the U.S. when armed off-duty officers have been shot by uniformed officers responding to criminal acts and presumed them to be the shooter. Similarly, officers arriving at shooting scenes will not always have an accurate description of the threat and may react with deadly force upon seeing an armed civilian on arrival.

I’m not an anti-gun advocate. In fact, I like guns. As a law enforcement officer, I carried one for my 36-year career; was a tactical team member for years and a trained sniper. I’m a long-time police officer that investigated organized crime and put murderers in jail, having dealt with a pile of evil people along that journey. Yet I currently don’t own a single firearm let alone feel the need to carry a handgun 24/7. I don’t walk the street or live in my home with the fear that some bad guy will recognize me and take me out. But that’s me.

I don’t profess that guns should be taken away from American citizens. Not at all. But they must be owned by vetted and trained individuals then safely stored and kept out of the hands of kids, criminals and people with mental health issues. And trained people with background checks should lose the right to possess firearms the moment they commit acts of violence or demonstrate mental health flags that make them a threat to themselves or others. At the same time, I see no legitimate need for citizens to walk the street, drive their cars or ride a motorcycle down the street while carrying a firearm. None.

Albeit not perfect, Canada has rigorous firearms legislation. In my mind our laws go too far in banning sporting and hunting guns that are generally not a significant threat to public safety, when lawfully owned. Having said that, the goal is to keep firearms safely stored and owned by those who are trained and have passed background checks. Licensed gun owners in Canada are constantly run through various databases every day, looking for changes in criminal records, restraining orders and mental health interventions. We don’t have anything similar to a 2^nd Amendment. As a result, mass shootings anywhere – including schools, are a rare event. Our homicides by firearm are also much lower than the U.S., per capita, and when they do occur are most often done with illegally possessed handguns that were smuggled into Canada from the U.S.

The 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was adopted in 1791 and protects the right of the American people to keep and bear arms. Besides for the personal protection needs of that era, a large part of its rationale was to have “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State.” Can the over 600,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officers, the National Guard and the most powerful military forces in the world not do that for them in 2026? And let’s not forget that in 1791, most firearms in the U.S. were single-shot, muzzle-loading black powder flintlocks and not the semi and fully-automatic firearms we have now, with large capacity magazines – many of which can fire hundreds of high-velocity rounds per minute. Transnational organized crime and terrorism were not considerations then. They hadn’t experienced mass shootings at schools, places of worship and public gatherings in 1791. We didn’t need live-shooter drills, safe rooms and emergency door barricades in schools then. Six-year old kids weren’t bringing pistols to school and shooting teachers at that time, nor were toddlers pulling handguns from mother’s purses in department store checkout lines. It’s a different world now, but to many the “Dammit, I gotta have my gun” mindset remains selfishly paramount.

The 1982 Tylenol poisoning deaths of seven people in the entire Unites States quickly resulted in the passing of the “Tylenol Bill” to make it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products. But mass murders of hundreds of adults and children, year after year, only result in thoughts and prayers by politicians that are more afraid of their political positioning in future elections than they are of more children being massacred. Without safe storage laws; ongoing universal background checks; mandatory firearms and safety training; safe storage and Red Flag Laws in all 50 U.S. States, the slaughters will continue.

If the Sandy Hook School shooting massacre of 20 children and six adults in 2017 didn’t bring forth change, I fear it nothing will. As we speak, the killings continue. However, I still pray that the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate prove me wrong before more innocent children die.