Guns are now the leading cause of death of children — in the United States of America.
Ms. Becky Pringle, President of National Educators Association, tells us that children are writing good-bye notes and wills just in case.
Children are making their wills just in case a shooter enters their schools and kills them. Most of us did not grow up with that concern. How will their PTSD affect them and the entire country in the future?
Sadly, I had clients and missed the testimony of Miah Cerillo. She is the child who covered herself in her dead friend’s blood and played dead to hide from the shooter. She also took the phone off of her dead teacher’s body and used it to call 911 repeatedly. These are the experiences of children in today’s America.
All people who live in the United States are 35 times more likely to die by guns than any other developed country. The statistics are horrifying. I would say they are unbelievable, but we must believe them if we are ever going to do anything about it.
Something else that became clear in the hearings is that a diverse group of people, who also make up the majority opinion in the United States, believe in stronger gun control laws.
Police and police unions are part of that group. Mr. Joseph A. Gramaglia, Police Commissioner of Buffalo, N.Y., calls for assault weapon bans, extensive background checks with more open records, and an extended ban of ghost guns, which President Biden installed with Executive Order. The Hill states,
What do gun manufacturers do to help with the problem of guns being the leading cause of death of children in the United States? Not a damned thing.
Testimony at the hearing pointed out that gun makers work to make guns more difficult to trace, easier to modify, and refuse to make guns that can’t be operated if stolen. We can do that with our phones but not with guns.
10% of guns used in crimes in Atlanta alone were purchased legally. Even if this weren’t contributing to the deaths of children, it borders on being accessory to crimes. All of these actions by gun manufacturers make the jobs of the police more difficult.
Why does the gun manufacturing industry refuse to make guns safer? Why do they refuse to make guns impossible to fire if stolen? Why don’t they support more extensive gun laws to save children? Because they profit. It’s greed.
Gun sales go up after every mass shooting. Why would the gun industry oppose making guns safer? That’s the reason. They make more money when they don’t. This won’t change, nor will their lobbies stop pouring money into the pockets of legislators.
We have to be the ones to bring change. The House on Wednesday their part, although they need to also do a ban on assault weapons.
It’s now time for the Senate to do their part and pass the same bill, and at this point that doesn’t look feasible. However, there are things we can do.
If you’re a Texan, or even if you aren’t, call Senator John Cornyn at 202–224–2934. He is the mediator of a bipartisan panel in the Senate to come up with their version of gun control.
Call your own Republican Senators and urge them to pass a bill as strong as the one passed by the House. If they only hear from their base, they don’t know that a majority of American citizens want stronger gun control. Let them know.
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Thank you to D. K. Harmony for editing.
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This post was previously published on New Choices.
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