A Nashville father is taking the safety of his children's elementary school into his own hands by standing watch outside the building in his camouflage Marines uniform. 

"I feel like this is something I had to do," Staff Sgt. Jordan Pritchard told local WSMV television while standing outside Gower Elementary school on Tuesday. 

Pritchard, who has two children at the school, is not armed. 

But he said he believed the sight of a soldier standing sentinel would make a gunman think twice about attacking the school. 

"What this uniform represents, the hope it brings, is larger than any weapon that I would ever need," Pritchard told the station. 

Some Gower parents, still jittery over sending their kids to school in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, are relieved that Pritchard is there. 

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