Americans are going to remain divided on gun control for the foreseeable future. After all, gun control activists aren’t going away anytime soon and we on the gun rights side have had it with “compromises” that result in us losing rights with absolutely nothing in return. Because of this impasse, the matter of gun control in this country is never going to reach a consensus. At least, not in our lifetime.

Yet when it comes to school shootings, we all have reason to be concerned. Something absolutely should be done to better protect our children.

For anti-gunners, though, that can only mean one thing. Gun control.

However, there’s a lot of other steps that can be taken. A bill introduced in the Senate hopes to make some of those a reality.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI is rolling out school safety measures in memory of victims of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Meanwhile, Washington moves further away from action on gun control.

Leading the effort is Max Schachter. His son Alex was one of the 17 killed during the shooting nearly two years ago.

“There’s a hole in my heart and my family’s heart that will never be filled,” said Schachter. “The only thing that we can do is to try to have something good come from this horrible tragedy.”

One good thing to come out of it is a new Senate bill in his son’s name that aims to help educators, parents, and community officials identify security risks and correct them to avoid similar situations.

The Luke and Alex School Safety Act:

• Creates and structures a Clearinghouse of School Safety Best Practices within Department of Homeland Security.
• Curates tips and advice for school safety measures that includes preparedness, threat prevention and crisis response.

“I think this is going to provide guidance to schools all over the country on what to do and what not to do,” said Schachter.

Of course, for anti-gunners, this is likely to be insufficient. That’s fine, though, because it’s insufficient for me as well.

That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t pass, though.

Frankly, I’d much rather we take a piecemeal approach to something like this so individual aspects can be debated individually, where good ideas pass and bad ideas don’t. Larger, more all-encompassing bills allow bad ideas to drown out the good ones and keep them from ever becoming reality, by and large.

These are simple, basic steps that probably should be undertaken. Put the information out there so schools can find them an use them to help prevent another attack.

Of course, this isn’t going to do it all by itself, but I don’t think it’s meant to. Sen. Johnson notes that gun control is a non-starter, yet he also notes, “So, I want to get a result within our committee’s jurisdiction so having this Clearinghouse of best practices is a good first step.”

I happen to agree.

It shouldn’t be a final step, by any stretch, but this is something that should be non-controversial. While we may disagree with what the best information and practices should be, we should agree that these best practices at least exist and it’s beneficial for schools to know them. Sen. Johnson’s bill will help with that.

From there, we can continue the debate into other options we can take to make our schools that much safer.

Plus, it has the added benefit of not trampling over our rights, so there’s that too.