Ever since the beginning of time, the world has had bad guys. We have tried many ways to come to grips with this situation.

Remember World War I? After the war, we started the League of Nations to stop wars. Remember World War II?

After the war, we started the United Nations.

Did any of that stop wars?

We decided to protect ourselves. So we have an Army, a Navy, an Air Force, the Marines and the Coast Guard.

On a local level, we also have bad guys. One of the ways we have decided to protect ourselves is to set up gun -free zones. Has that been successful? Well, if a bad guy wants to kill a bunch of people, does he go to a police station? Does he go to a gun show? No. He goes to a gun-free zone like a school.

My suggestion is to do away with the term “gun free.” Let it be known that there might be guns in schools. How that is done should be left up to the individual schools.

Remember a few years ago, we had airplane hijacking? We let it be known that some planes would be carrying air marshals who had concealed weapons. Have we had a hi-jacking lately?

Leo J. Thoennes, Federal Way