How has it come to this? In Thursday’s Inquirer article “New Jersey School District Getting Armored” (well-meaning) Leo Holt is donating 250 “Emergency Response Shields” to the Gloucester City School District. Holt explains, “Why? If you’re an American family, how can you not?” How many Rubicons have been crossed in our country to come to this? How is it that the only way to protect our children in schools is to arm teachers with bullet-proof shields? How is it that we cannot see that these shields are merely an anodyne, they ease a symptom, but do nothing to fight the actual disease of gun violence in this country? If we truly embrace life and liberty for all, if we are truly American families who embrace these ideals, why are we not searching harder for a cure to this epidemic? So LGBTQ folks can find safe havens. So children can learn well in school and come safely home at the end of each day. So we can combat guns on city streets. So Black and Brown people can safely do their grocery shopping. These donated shields are merely a palliative. If we can’t get our legislators out of the Gun Lobbyist pockets, no amount of body armor will successfully shield our American families from a determined, armed-to-the-teeth attacker, bent upon doing harm in a nightclub, school, cinema, or local grocery store, who obtained guns easy-peasy, no questions asked. There is no relief from the pain of losing a loved one. If just one life were saved because our legislators, on the state and federal levels, had the courage and moral gumption to enact safe, sane gun control laws, isn’t that worth it?