A survey published in a USA Today makes no sense. The question: "Should parents of kids with mental illness be allowed to have guns at home?" The answers: No 60.6% and Yes 39.4%. (The original source is Parents magazine and a place called the Child Mind Institute.).

The numbers are puzzling and the question itself is poorly worded. Nearly 40% of the people polled think it's okay for kids with mental illnesses to be in homes with firearms? Did the risk of homicide, suicide, or accidental discharges not cross their minds as they were answering?

The scope of the question is flawed. Children are not often (accurately) diagnosed with Axis disorders until their late teens or early adulthood. Are all children diagnosed with conduct disorders dangerous to themselves or others? No. What are they really asking? Because your child has been diagnosed with a mental illness, you should or should not be allowed to own or possess a firearm? Or would a better question be, "If you own or possess a firearm and your child was ever diagnosed with a serious mental illness, which of the following gun protection devices would you use?" a. trigger lock, b. gun safe, c. all of the above, d. none of the above. The only answers are a, b, c, whether your kid is mentally ill or not. Unsecured firearms and children are like unsecured pornography and children; no matter how good you think your hiding place is in your home, they will find it.

A case from June 4, 2013 in San Diego illustrates this point as only tragedies can: a man's 9-year-old daughter was playing in the garage with a 10-year-old boy from her neighborhood. The girl's 14-year old brother was supposed to be babysitting both kids but wasn't. Somehow, the two young children got their hands on the man's 9mm pistol. It discharged and killed the 10-year-old boy with a shot to his chest. San Diego Police have not said publicly who fired the gun. The gun's owner turned himself into police this week and was charged with involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, and criminal storage of a firearm.

The man's attorney has said the police search warrant which identified the gun's hidden location is wrong (insert usual gasp of shock here). SDPD said their investigation suggests the gun was stored in a plastic bin in the garage, but the attorney (who was not there at the time of the incident, of course), says both the gun and the ammunition clip were hidden separately and in an "inaccessible place." Well, then how did those two devices come together to produce the accidental but avoidable death of a child? While it's unlikely both children possessed huge magnets, which they waved around the house and were able to attract the gun and the magazine, some act of extreme carelessness certainly occurred to put both into the hands of one child or the other at the moment when the firing pin fell on a live round.

Since the Devil is always in the details, the results of the investigation will tell the real truth. Fingerprints from the gun and photographs of the scene and the house may help. Certainly the prosecutor will use the test conclusions from the gunshot residue (GSR) swabs taken from both children's hands to accurately determine not just who handled the gun but who fired it. Statements from the 9-year-old girl should help, as she is more likely to tell the truth at her age than any adult covering it up.

None of this will bring the dead boy back to life, of course, but if the man's attorney can prove her client used all due diligence to keep his gun safe, then maybe he will not be convicted. But that's a big if.

Some gun owners who believe their guns should be at the ready don't always like impediments like trigger guards, trigger locks, gun safes, or storing their unloaded guns away from the ammunition. They say these devices or methods can be defeated and no approach guarantees complete safety. They don't like any delay that keeps them from immediately protecting themselves or others with a loaded gun. Perhaps. But most kids don't have safecracking or lockpicking skills. Trigger locks and gun safes offer the best line of defense for the accidental discharge of a firearm, or even its theft.

Most burglars know right where to look for a gun in a home they target: bedside nightstand, under the bed or mattress, in the bedroom closet, or in the bedroom dresser drawers. If your gun safe is locked, well-hidden, and heavy enough not to be carried out (bolting it to the floor helps), then your guns are mostly safe from misuse or theft. And even crooks who steal guns with trigger guards often destroy the gun when trying to cut the lock off.

Responsible gun owners, and as a former cop I'd like to think I'm one, know that the debate about gun control in this country is complex and not possible to solve with pat yes/no, do/do not answers, platitudes, or yelling. Few issues in society create such strong feelings. But with 300 million people in the US owning an estimated 280 million guns, can't we at least agree that an important part of gun ownership is gun safety?

A report on "60 Minutes" in the aftermath of the Newtown school shootings said that Adam Lanza's mother had a gun safe for her collection of firearms. Unfortunately, first for her, and then for the kids massacred at Sandy Hook Shooting , and our nation, it was kept in his bedroom and it was not locked.

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How to best protect children has been a lifelong concern for parents since the dawn of time. Yet, today, safety at schools unfortunately stands at the forefront of those fears ever since the horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut occurred in December 2012. Once considered almost untouchable sanctuaries of learning, schools across the country now find themselves among an evolving world where almost nothing seems as safe as it once was.

An Associated Press article titled "Trained police needed for school security" purported that the debate on school security originally hinged on whether or not to have a police officer present on campus in any capacity. Now, the debate includes whether anyone (hired guard, officer or employee) should be allowed to carry weapons on school property, and whether that armed 'guard' must be a law enforcement official, volunteer or security guard.

Adding fuel to the debate, the National Rifle Association recently called for trained, armed volunteers to be present at every school in the nation. Regardless of which stance a person may take on any part of this issue, the simple fact remains that a person, trained or untrained, armed or unarmed, who is solely dedicated to the safety of the school grounds will do more to prevent an incident than not having one at all. If that seems like an oversimplification, it is.

The debate concerning a 'guard' tends to progress into an all or nothing scenario. At which point, the duty of protection may be assigned to a faculty or staff member for reasons of budget or fear of backlash. The truth is, a person with another primary function, such as a teacher or principal, cannot consistently devote the necessary attention to keep an area safe while also doing their main job satisfactorily. On the other hand, a guard who has created a working safety relationship with the people and environment he or she is protecting allows those being protected to remain calmer and focused on education, not security.

While it is unfortunate to say, today's educational institutions must prepare for the worst like Sandy Hook Shooting while hoping for the best. It is the only way to help reduce the risk of an incident becoming yet another tragedy. Yet the simple truth remains that a guard dedicated to the security of an area remains an active deterrent to security breaches and can be used efficiently and effectively with the aforementioned options.

There is no greater 'asset' we can safeguard than our children's safety. And nothing should stop us all from doing that to the absolute best of our abilities.

Also read: What We Can Learn About Sandy Hook Related to Children With Disabilities?

Communities all throughout the US have been discussing the issue of stopping school violence for many years but it often feels like things are getting worse rather than better. There are School shootings remember Sandy Hook Shooting , brutal attacks on individual students, and hallway riots that take the lives of young kids every single year. With all of the focus on preventing this type of behavior, why are kids become more and more violent at school?

Bullying has always been considered a part of growing up and maybe it is just human nature, however as the years progress it has been taken to unreasonable degrees. I'm sure there's substantial numbers of children who have been severely bullied in various forms over the decades – who have had to tolerate all kinds of cruelty and violence that we'll never know about... no doubt being told to just "tough it out". No child should have to undergo the brutality of bullying.

There has been a new addition to the slang dictionary: bullycide. This word was coined as a short cut for suicides committed by the victims of severe bullying. This word has even been used by national news broadcasters and shows how bad bullying has become today. Many kids have chosen to take their own lives rather than walk another day down those school hallways.

Not only has bullying seem to be been taken to more serious degrees today, but there appears to often be no place for the victims to find refuge. Not only do they have to be taunted and pushed around in the hallways and on the playground, but they have to suffer it out through their email accounts, social networking accounts, and text messages. Many kids are even being brutally attacked while riding on the school bus.

Here is another term that has been termed in recent years which is now engrained in our culture: cyber bullying. This is where kids are harassed and bullied through the Internet. This is often done through messages on social networking sites and some kids will even set up bogus accounts falsely representing their victim in order to taunt and embarrass them.

There is a clear connection between the escalating brutality of bullying and the escalation of violence in schools. If we are ever to succeed at stopping school violence we have to realize that bullying is contributing to the school shootings, suicides and other drastic actions that many victims feel driven to perform.

So, is there really any way of stopping school violence? Are things just going to get worse and worse no matter how hard we try?

Many people believe that stopping school violence is an impossible feat. They argue that there will always be some form of violence or bullying occurring inside our schools because it is the nature of youngsters. Even if that is true, when students, teachers, school administration, and parents work together great things can happen in our schools.

A lot of the responsibility for stopping school violence rests with the parents. It is more important today than ever that parents monitor the activities of their children. This includes monitoring their activities online and with their cell phones. Parents must intervene quickly if they believe their child is either being bullied or bullying others.

Teachers also share some of the responsibility since they are in the midst of these kids day after day and could pick up on signs of trouble. School administrators should also implement strict zero tolerance policies for violence which strongly discourage inappropriate behaviors. Programs can also be started to lower the levels of bullying occurring in the school hallways.

In the days of bullycide and cyber bullying it is important that we at least try to stop violence amongst our youth. Perhaps skeptics are right that stopping school violence and bulllying is an impossible feat. But that doesn't give us the right to sit back and watch our children suffer the repercussions of bullying.