To the editor:

Last week I received this text from my 14-year-old son: “There might be a guy with a gun at the high school, so we’re on lockdown right now.”

As most of you know by now, the police came, swept the campus, and did not find a weapon. Our schools behaved admirably and efficiently, as did our law enforcement.

However, the children, staff, teachers and we parents, lived out that next hour as if our worst fears had been confirmed. Many children were traumatized, and teachers and school staff broke down later in their own homes with their families, as did I, once the danger was past.

This is the condition of our lives. Certainly not the way I grew up or most of you grew up. I had earthquake drills, fire drills, but lockdown?

It is my conviction that in regards to safe, sane gun laws, we parents, community members and legislators are either moving toward a solution, or away from a solution. If we are standing still, we are moving away from a solution and keeping our kids and community in lockdown.

In the last legislative session in Olympia the Extreme Risk Protection Order bill was unable to move forward. Just as with Initiative 594, hundreds of us are now out collecting signatures for Initiative 1491 to put Extreme Risk Protection Orders on the November ballot. This bill would allow someone like me to petition a judge to have a firearm removed from a family member deemed a danger to themselves or others — like the gun that killed my brother Mike five years ago. Mike had attempted suicide once before. The next time he was successful.

When you see one of us on the ferry or at the farmers market with a petition in hand, please sign it. We are fighting for your rights and your safety. We are striving for common sense gun legislation to prevent suicide or homicide by firearm when there are clear warnings signs. So that maybe one day the word “lockdown” will no longer be part of our children’s experience or vocabulary.

DINAH MANOFF

Bainbridge Island