I have two daughters in the second grade. Once every two days, they go to gym class. Once every three days, they have music. Once every six days, they study Spanish, and once every eighteen days, they pretend people have come to their school to kill them.
It's New Jersey law. Passed in 2010, it requires schools to perform monthly security drills, including a specific number of lockdowns and "active-shooter" drills. Our principal tells the children that the drills are practice in case a stray animal, a dog or a cat, comes into the school. This has led to a popular rumor that my daughters have repeated to me many times over about the principal and how terribly allergic he is to animals. God bless our principal. The number of interactions he must have about his affliction with curious and disbelieving students warrants a pay raise great enough to bankrupt our entire district.
On a side note, two years ago, a stray cat did indeed get in through the front door and into my daughter's classroom. It took the students a while to notice the animal as it walked along the walls, looking for an exit, but when they did, from all reports, they all collectively lost their shit. The principal had to send a letter of explanation home with each terrified pupil.
When I was a kid growing up in Texas, we had tornado drills. We had tornado drills because we had tornados. Now my kids have "active-shooter" drills because my kids have active shooters. I don't remember having any kind of say on the prevalence of tornados when I was growing up. That's not the case with active shooters.
Talking about reasonable gun legislation after the horrific acts in Connecticut is not politicizing the tragedy. The tragedy is already political. If anything, deliberately not talking about gun legislation is the political decision. It is also the wrong decision. Loopholes must be closed, effective background checks must be instated, mental health needs to become a priority, and assault weapons need to simply stop existing.
Now is not the time after the shootings in Connecticut. Now is the time before the next one.