Hamilton County mayoral and district attorney candidates need to publish a pragmatic plan to protect our children now.
Here are some ideas:
1) Better fund, train and equip school resource officers. Allow the Chattanooga Police Department to provide more S.R.O.s to augment H.C.S.O deputies.
2) Coordinate with Homeland Security, F.B.I, A.T.F and federal intelligence agencies as well as state assets to provide more effective mental health treatment for troubled students. Monitor people who have made threats or exhibited aggressive behavior, many mass shooters/domestic terrorists have slipped through the cracks of the legal system. Sometimes red flags are raised in different jurisdictions. Accurate and prompt interdepartmental information sharing can save lives.
3) Create a special D.A task force that can be two fold to confront and counter the two most dire problems which are the fentanyl epidemic and mass shootings in schools and churches.
4) Provide efficient training for qualified teachers and church security teams willing to carry firearms and defend children and parishioners.
5) Install metal detectors at every school operated by a sworn peace officer or highly trained armed security guard. Make our schools protected like court houses or government buildings.
6) Install bullet proof doors that teachers can easily lock.
7) Demand that Governor Lee and state legislators change the state law back to requiring gun permits in order to conceal carry firearms. This is a common sense public safety imperative as there are now thousands of armed Tennesseans who have never taken a gun safety class or shooting accuracy test.
Andrew McLaren