Four more lives ended in a place that’s supposed to be safe. Four more families torn apart with grief when they thought their loved ones were protected.

How many more will we tolerate?

On Wednesday, a 14-year-old boy walked into a high school in Georgia and opened fire, killing two students and two school staffers before surrendering to police.

Thoughts and prayers abound, but that’s not enough. Families deserve action.

We won’t pretend to know what the answer is.

Maybe it’s gun control of some kind. Maybe it’s increased spending on mental health services. Maybe it’s more and better outreach to young men, who make up the overwhelming majority of school shooters. Maybe it’s investments in police offers in schools. Maybe it’s better training for teachers and other school staffers. Maybe it’s allowing teachers to carry firearms. Maybe it’s some combination of all or some of those things.

But it has to stop.

We call on legislatures across the nation and on Congress to start talking to each other — seriously talking — to try to get something done. Something real and meaningful and immediate.

Laws alone won’t do it. Schools and families and people who work with young people, too, have to act. They have to figure out the roles they can play in supporting young people — especially young men — so they don’t feel they have to take out their anger by pulling a trigger.

We can’t have another school shooting.

Our kids deserve better.

We have to do something.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)