Along with everyone else in America, I am left shaken and heartbroken by the tragic loss of life caused by another mass shooting, this time at a military complex in Washington, D.C.

I am also left with the following thought: as the gun lobby argues that arming ourselves and our schools will prevent mass shootings, we are left reeling from another assault-rife massacre, this time at a military building secured by armed guards.

It may be too soon to make such a point – as we still count the injured and the dead – but as a parent of schoolchildren, and as a schoolteacher myself, I'm shaken by what has occurred not just because it is so horribly sad, but because I know that it can't be prevented.

Anywhere.

Arming my school can't stop something like this. It just can't.

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