Last week a beautiful, vivacious young woman - Audrey Atkinson - was gunned down unmercifully by a jilted boyfriend, who later took his own life. The death of the couple leaves their toddler son an orphan.

The waste of these two human lives is unacceptable. For their parents and other loved ones, the permanent loss of these young people is forever heart breaking.

This week a man broke into his ex-wife's home with the possible intention of doing her harm. Thankfully she was not at home. He took his own life.

Both of the male perpetrators had been reported for stalking their former lovers. In the case of Audrey, reports were made to the police about the threatening actions of her ex-boyfriend and restraining orders were issued, but to no avail.

We absolutely do not blame our local law enforcement officers for not protecting Audrey better; the police can only do so much.

However, laws regarding stalking need to be toughened to the point that any violation of the law sends a stalker to jail immediately after a violation occurs. When this happens, the person issuing the complaint and her family can have some peace.

We would encourage our local legislators to introduce a bill that will put stalkers where they should be - behind bars.