>> sophomores jason hollis and jason mccoy brought guns to school. however, harrless was the only one to open fire. assistant principal nancy blackwelder and a student intern were critically injured by gunshot wounds. the high school was forever changed as the principal was fatally wounded. >> never in my mind did i think that there was a gun in my school or let alone that someone had just been shot and killed. >> students were devastated, scared. long gone were the days where school was considered a safe haven. students were cold it was an isolated incident, it would never happen again. yet here we are 25 years later. with massacres such as columbine, virginia tech and the newtown shooting. so you have to ask the question,

hat is the solution? ohn fund, a columnist, explains. >> we have those who want to focus on the guns, and other people want to focus on the criminally insane or the criminal minds behind these horrific incidents. >> what is the answer? >> but i also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that ak-47's belong in the hands of soldiers, not the hands of criminals. create a national database of the mental ill. >> i'm offering a third choice. fortify our schools. update the school design to match the dangerous time we live in. finally, implement metal detectors. these may not completely

eradicate weapons invading our schools but at least we would know that we took that extra step, we took the extra mile to prevent prev -- to prevent it from happening. an international business leader and high school teacher grew up in the land of egypt. >> also overseas, i've seen it in many countries such as egypt, saudi arabia, france, spain, all over europe, the fence is a brick fence. there's just one gate or two gates and there are always security people there, they know who is coming in, who is going out. it is extremely important. school resource officer jewett commerce. >> we need to redesign schools to make it harder to get access. change the access points, if you want metal detectors, make it

easier to cover all the students. in this school, there are 20 or 30 bays -- way into the schools. there's no way to cover all those areas. >> but by far the biggest security problem is classroom doors. many doors only include a lock on the outside. in an emergency situation, the teacher would have to leave the classroom, venture into the hallway and lock the door. kindergarten teachers don't have to worry about their doors because they don't have in. >> we don't have doors on our classroom. if there was a reason for us to go into lockdown, i wouldn't have a way to prevent an intruder coming into the classroom. oney to boost our security at the school i'm at now is adding door os our classrooms. >> we have pod doors and we have doors on them but if there was some way to lock them and -- in a crisis or a situation that needed to be, we would feel safer in our pods.

>> my final point was not necessarily my own idea. rather, i was inspired. >> my senior year we were given a writing assignment and the goal was to write ourselveses a letter and talk about where we thought we would be 10 years from now. as a 17-year-old, soon to be 18-year-old senior, i thought for sure that 10 years from the time this tragedy took place, that we would have metal detectors. >> metal detectors in schools? as extreme as it sounds, it's not that bad of an idea. why is it safer to go to an airport? why is it safer to go to a courthouse? yet somewhere where children are required to go every single day is not safe. recently vice president joe biden made a statement that i think relates to this issue. >> we met with a young man who is here today, colin goddard is

here. where are you? he was one of the survivors of the virginia tech massacre. when i asked him about what he thought we should be doing, he said, i'm not here because of what happened to me. i'm here because of what happened to me keeping happening to other people and we have to do something about it. >> in kind -- in kindergarten you learned your abc's and 123's, the basics of education. we need to get back to the basics, we need to get back to where decisions weren't based off money or politics, where they were based on protecting our futures. people will always find guns. they will find weapons. we need to guard ourselves against them. we need to do it now. we should have done it 25 years ago. it's been two decades since the pinellas park shooting and we have no excuse. dedicated to mr. richard allen and the hundreds of lives that

have been lost in school shootings. >> congratulations to all the winners in this year's studentcam competition. to see more winning videos, go to studentcam.org. >> next, a discussion about the future of the civil rights movement. then a look at the life and legacy of former british prime minister margaret thatcher. after that, the dedication ceremony to honor congressional aid gabe zimmerman killed in the tucson shootings in 2011. on the next "washington journal," nbc news senior political editor mark murray looks at the potential political impact of the bombings in boston and what's ahead for congressional action on guns and immigration. ill braniff, director of the anti-terrorism group talks about

terrorism. and a report on torture by the united states. "washington journal," live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> the f-35 is the most expensive weapons system in the history of the united states. history of mankind, quite frankly. it is an advanced warplane, a fighter jet that is to be used by the air force, the navy and the marine kerp. it's the replacement for the f-16 for the air force, for a number of other planes for the marines and navy. supposed to be our new, advanced, all-purpose fighter jet. it was a plane that was supposed to be in the skies fighting now. still in development. it's an incredibly troubled program. it's a program that has gone tens of billions of dollars over budget and i burrowed into this program as a way to write about the overall challenges of

trimming the defense budget because this program is in some ways singular in terms of its cost overruns and delays and the way it's been structured to, as i write in the piece, its most effective defensive attribute may not be its ray dars and sensors and missiles and stealth technology and ability to fly at supersonic speeds, it may well be the way it's designed to evade budget cutters in washington. >> more sunday at 8:00 on c-span's "q & a." the national action network recently held its annual convention in new york city. in one session, three generations of civil rights leaders discuss the future of the civil rights movement, gun violence, economic equality, and the role of black churches. the group's founder and president, the reverend al sharpton, moderated. other speakers include the

reverend jesse jackson, juanita abernathy, the widow of late civil rights leader ralph aber in a they, reverend joseph lou re, and the nacc -- and the naacp chair. this is two and a half hours. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i'm reverend davis the coordinator for the national action network. thank you so much. thank you for being here this morning, especially all of you vf been -- who have been here this week. we have had a wonderful time this week and want to thank all of you who came from all over the country to be with us. now we're about to get started on our program, i would like to introduce our founder and president of the national action network, the reverend al sharpton.

[applause] >> good morning. ood morning. good morning and thank you. movement, measure the 2013. we are live on 1190 wliv, c-span, and it will run on c-span again during the week, three times, and msnbc. every year at the end of our national convention, we have the leaders of various national civil rights groups join us to talk about what they have done and we have done in the preceding year, what we have not been table