Editor's Note: This article has been contributed by AnthonyC. Roman, CEO of Roman and Associates, and frequent contributor toCNN, MSNBC, CNN International, Associated Press and New YorkTimes.

With guns drawn on both sides of the aisle, politicians,interest groups, and even customarily neutral journalists aretaking aim at one another with deadly accuracy. Accusations andcounter charges are being fired across the fence with suchintensity that they make the Wyatt Earp gunfight at the O.K. Corralseem timid in comparison.

This is not at all surprising, given the carnage suffered in thelast two years that is increasing in frequency and severity,resulting in combat zone body counts. Newtown,an ironically gun friendly area of Connecticut, with surprisingstrict gun control measures, has raised the Americanconsciousness, resulting in an emotional response not seen sinceperhaps the Vietnam War.

Night after night, each camp convincingly presents its side ofthe argument. There are calls to ban assault weapons or limit thenumber of bullets in their ammunition magazines. On the other side,some think arming teachers and placing police in everyschool could be the answer. Other arguments pointto Australia's gun ban after mass shootings, explaining they have suffered no moremassacres. Then there are post-event analyses claiming ifarmed guards were present in Newtown schools, thenthis tragedy would likely not have occurred. Democracy ismessy.

Guns and Drugs

There are problems with the arguments on both sides. The fact isAustralia does not have a major drug war on its boarder, like theUnited States. This drug war has an insatiable appetite for highpowered weapons on both sides of the border. Gun ban or no, gunswill flow back and forth along the American boarder in the companyof recreational drugs that Americans and westerners demand.

Guns and drugs are interwoven in an unholy alliance that isinseparable. This is just a hint as to how complex a subjectand debate we are facing. When new laws are passed where will weplace the newly convicted? No one has addressed the factthat American prisons have a record population and there issimply no more room for the additional prisoners more gun controlwill surely create.

Of course Americans love their guns as much as they love theircars and will not be divorced from them easily. Hunters, recreationsportsman, skeet and trap shooters all feel entitled to ownership;and oh yes, that small thing called the Second Amendmentguaranteeing the right to bear arms, upheld by the lands highestcourt. Yet millions of other Americans fear guns, believing them tobe evil and calling for them to be banned.

Murder Rates and Gun Control

Some areas, such as Chicago, Ill. have the highest gun relatedmurder rate in the country, yet some of the strictest gun controllaws. Why, illegal guns and drugs, the unholy alliance. Yet NewYork City—a larger city with one of the busiest shipping portsin the world and similar strict gun control—had the lowestmurder rate by guns since the police department began creatingstatistics. This is a remarkable accomplishment as a result ofmodern strategic policing, with the aid of all of the latestsoftware and surveillance equipment Homeland Security money canbuy, and an esprit de corps second to none.

We face a terrible dilemma: create a feel goodsolution that will not likely accomplish what we are trying todo, save ourselves, from ourselves. But in the shadow of Newtown,to do nothing is unimaginable. While we debate, we and ourchildren are faced with a continuing real risk.

In this instance, the goal of risk management is to protect ourschools, school yards, universities, summer camps, places ofrecreation, malls, trains, buses, places of work and worship, froman evolving profile of mass murderer. Mass murderers whose weaponshave included semi-automatic high-powered rifles, rapid firepistols, common fertilizer combined with gasoline to produce bombswith a blast of such ferocity and power, it can be detonated frombehind the bomb barriers and still destroy a large office building.Common barbecue propane tank bombs, similar inpower to the fertilizer bomb, bombs surgically placed in theabdomens of suicide bombers, and the diabolical list infinitelycontinues in the imagination of the deranged and determined.

Safeguarding People and Property

While we wait for the progressively slow progress of democraticlegislating, one answer that can address the painful reality weface is highlighted by three basic principles ofprotection:

1. Assessment
2. Preparation
3. Action

Property owners and those insuring them must assess each uniquebuilding, location, or area to be protected in order to identifyits security weaknesses and strengths. They mustassess the best methods to counter the weaknessesand the risks.

This will entail preparing a plan to include layers of securitymethods, with each layer presenting obstacles and slowing anassailant down to allow time for police or specially trained armedguard response. As for preparation, devise anevacuation plan to move civilians either away from the threat orinto secure portions of the facility that will act to slow theassailant further. This will allow more time for the police torespond.

Action includes awareness and practical ongoingtraining for the staff, and for the group being protected, so thateach knows what to do, and when to do it to best ensure survival ofa mortal threat. This is similar to required ongoing fire drills,tornado drills, hurricane, and disaster drills.

The overall aim is the Golden 10 Minutes ofSurvival to allow police and rescue response,deployment, and interdiction.

Security preparedness and security drills, it is now apparent,should be new lexicons. So while the debate rages on, democracytakes its slow, imperfect course, and one type of legislation oranother is passed, the good news is each school district, village,town, summer camp, place of business and place of worship canreassess the generally inadequate current approach to securitymeasures, and effect a remarkable difference. It is goodbusiness, makes sense, and meets the moral challenge of ourtime.

Anthony C. Roman is CEO of Roman and Associates, aglobal insurance & corporate investigation, risk management,and security consulting firm. He is a frequent contributor toCNN, MSNBC, CNN International, Associated Press, New York Times,Crain's New York Business, and New York Newsday. He is the softwaredesigner of WEB TRAC, a claims, legal, risk management and securityintelligent software program. Roman may be reachedat [email protected]. Followhim @RomanSearch.com, Twitter and Facebook.