Guns: Take a stand and make our schoolyards safe

Re: “The Latest: Superhero funeral honors boy shot at school” (TNT, 10/5).

This will be the invocation I give to Downtown Kiwanis on 11/11/16: “Dear Lord, four weeks from this day, we’ll be electing our next president. Please aid us in choosing the one who puts our country first, ahead of personal aspirations. Remind us that terrorism is not the number one issue.”

For the past 10 years, on average, 7 Americans have been killed by terrorists. During the same 10 years, on average, 30,118 Americans have been killed by gunfire.

We will be judged not just by what we did, but also by what we failed to do. I’ll be judged for staying on the sidelines far too long.

Just last week, while on his school’s playground, 6-year-old Jacob Hall was gunned down by a 14-year-old. We failed to make our schoolyards safe for 6-year-olds.

This story was originally published October 13, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Guns: Take a stand and make our schoolyards safe."