Rep. Lauren Boebert was on cable news recently and said something we agree with, though we doubt she had thought through the implications of her comment.

Appearing on Fox News, Boebert said, “When 9/11 happened, we didn’t ban planes. We secured the cockpit.”

Boebert made these comments to argue for “hardening” America’s schools in response to the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Boebert is right that we secured the plane, but we did much more than that.

In the wake of 9/11, we passed legislation that increased the powers and tools that law enforcement have to identify people planning terrorist plots and disrupt them. We made it harder for everyone to get into an airport terminal with stricter security checkpoints. We created an entirely new federal bureaucracy, administered by the TSA, tasked with delivering safe air travel. We also created a list of people who were banned from flights.

American politicians at the time didn’t say we just had to accept some terrorism deaths as the price of living in a free country. They took action.

We want to be clear, we do not want to ban guns or take them away from responsible gun owners. We believe in the Second Amendment and value ours and your right to bear arms. We also know that the overwhelming majority of gun owners value responsibility and safety with their guns. That doesn’t mean there aren’t reasonable, common sense reforms that we can make.

Certainly securing schools is part of the solution for preventing school shootings, but it’s not enough. The killer in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was able to force his way into the school despite a locked front door.

It also doesn’t solve the problem for mass shootings elsewhere like a grocery store, as we saw in the recent Buffalo, New York, mass shooting, or in a church or at a movie theater … You get the point. The common denominator is the guns.

We also don’t think banning assault-style weapons is the answer. They may look scary, but they are involved in only a tiny fraction of all gun deaths.

Rather, we believe one’s ability to obtain a gun should come along with a significantly enhanced, rigorous process, including a robust background check, training and a mental health evaluation. The same requirements must apply for all gun sales, including private transactions and at gun shows. Such a process would not prevent a single, responsible adult from lawfully buying a gun. But it would make it very difficult for someone deranged to obtain a gun. This should have been made law decades ago.

One possible model is the TSA pre-check list or CLEAR program for air travel. It’s extensive and involves a personal interview, but again wouldn’t prevent a law-abiding citizen from buying a gun.

Most of these mass shootings, especially school shootings are committed by young people. We don’t allow anyone under 21 to purchase alcohol. We recognize that their brains are not fully developed and most should not be trusted to use alcohol responsibly. We should treat gun ownership the same way.

We also think a training course would be wise to require for a gun purchase. This might not prevent a mass shooting, but it could prevent an accident.

Finally, a mental health evaluation would not prevent a single responsible gun owner from buying a gun, but it may be the impediment needed to stop the would-be killer.

About 45,000 Americans die at the end of a gun every year. There are simple things we can do to lower that number and potentially drop the horrific mass shootings plaguing our nation of late.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial board