The answer to gun violence in schools is not arming teachers nor is it an assault weapon ban or enhancing background checks. Republicans and Democrats will always be split over the Second Amendment issue, so our country needs to stop going back and forth over gun control and find a realistic solution.

Wednesday night a Town Hall took place in Florida where senators Marco Rubio, Bill Nelson and Ted Dutch answered pressing questions from grieving and concerned victims, parents and teachers of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and unsurprisingly no progress was made.

Rubio tried to defend his stance on the importance of owning guns in front of an audience of Democrats and as much as the word “change” was brought up, our government is deadlocked and unable to progress.

The bipartisan answer to gun violence is bean bag guns. Bean bag guns cost $199 and can be implemented in every school across our country.

A control center can be placed at each school with a security office, watching cameras placed throughout the school. Within seconds of the active shooter arriving, the security guard will hit a button and the guns will zero in on the shooter, rapidly pelting them with bean bags.

The bean bag guns will be placed at all the entrances of schools. Having a security officer in a control center takes them out of harm’s way as well as makes them more helpful in an active shooter situation. This method will also neutralize the shooter until police can arrive. 

According to President Donald Trump in a listening session with teachers and students after the shooting, the average response time for police to arrive is five to eight minutes whereas the average attack lasts three minutes. Bean bag guns could prevent the attack from happening to begin with by stopping the shooter before they can attack.

While bean bag guns are an investment, it will allow teachers to focus on teaching rather than arming them, which is another solution proposed. One of the biggest challenges with implementing the bean bag guns is the funding. Most of the funding can come from the lottery as well as each individual state. States also have school safety funding, which can go toward efforts to place the bean bag guns in schools.

Universities can compete to develop the technology and it should not be hard considering our government can fly planes remotely and drop bombs within five to ten feet of a target.

Implementing bean bag guns into schools is a legitimate solution to the mass shooting epidemic our country is currently facing. Republicans’ Second Amendment rights will not be infringed upon and Democrats will be satisfied because violence is not being combatted with more violence. Our country needs to stop talking about gun control and find a solution to make a meaningful change.