Following the wake of the violent Sandy Hook School massacre, Obama has proposed easier access to mental health care and a gun ban list which includes military-type assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. While easier access to mental health care is a good idea, banning specific weapons is crossing the line. Many Americans would take a gun ban personally as a restriction of their rights and a betrayal by their president who they feel should be there to protect the liberties given to the public, not take them away.

If this gun ban passes, it would only spark much protest and negative backlash from the American public. So instead of looking at how to stop a criminal who has malicious intent, we should look at the other end of the spectrum on how to protect the potential victims. There are a few alternative options that would better help the situation instead of banning weapons.

First, we should have police officers stationed at schools on a rotating basis. Instead of having a police officer at every school, every day, the police security would be set up like our banking system. In that scenario, a pre-designated number of on duty police officers would patrol the schools. The schools being patrolled would be random, just like the bank security setup. This would help deter some people planning a school shooting due to the fact that there may be someone there to engage them back. Funding for this could possibly come from a surcharge on ammunition.

Second, each teacher should have access to a non-lethal taser and each teacher should be trained in the use of such tasers which could be used to protect their class in the event of an intruder. Teachers wouldn’t have to worry about a lethal weapon being in the classroom, but the taser would still be substantial enough to stop a shooter in their tracks until help arrives. Also, when shooting a taser, the barbed probes can penetrate the skin and send paralysing electric shocks to the perpetrator until the barbs are manually removed. This would allow the teacher the ability to disarm the shooter until additional help could arrive.

Banning weapons is not the answer. This is taking away the freedom and rights of all Americans. The answer is increased access to mental health care, rotated police security, and access to a non-lethal teacher-secured weapon. This would help deter possible incidents and provide protection against violence in our schools.