We don’t want what happened in Uvalde to happen in Pennsylvania. But make no mistake about it, it will. Our fourth-graders will die, too, and soon, unless we stop asking God to do what we should be doing ourselves.
Uvalde won’t be the last time a deranged Rambo walks into a church or a supermarket or a school and shoots off multiple rounds with an assault weapon.
This Memorial Day, as we rightly honor those who died on battlefields to protect American democracy, we should be ashamed our children are dying in their classroom.
This is not why thousands of American soldiers died in wars overseas. They didn’t die to protect the National Rifle Association. They didn’t die to put millions of gun lobby dollars into the pockets of politicians. They died to protect our land and especially to protect our children.
To honor their sacrifice, every member of Congress, every senator, legislator, governor, and mayor must move now to restrict public access to weapons of war.
It must become impossible for anyone to get a battlefield weapon that can kill our children. Period.
No one deserves to be called a leader if they aren’t doing all they can at this moment to stop easy access to weapons that shattered the bodies of fourth-graders in Robb Elementary School.
Please understand, it will happen again. Next time it could be first-graders, or kids walking into school on their first day of kindergarten. Next time it could be in Pennsylvania.
And, for the record, teachers shouldn’t be expected to be last line of defense. Teachers shouldn’t have to train for a gunfight with automatic weapons.
No more excuses. We can stop this evil in our country if we put children above the NRA, tortured readings of the Constitution or anything else that is now protecting killers.
The responsibility to protect our children and everyone else doesn’t fall just with those in public office who are hyper-focused on filling campaign coffers to keep their cushy public jobs. They could pass the laws that will start to end this national nightmare. But they won’t unless voters demand it.
The real responsibility falls with each citizen who votes; or worse, with each citizen who doesn’t bother to do so. By voting for candidates who offer no solutions to address what is now a national epidemic, you are abetting the slaughter of innocents.
After Buffalo and Uvalde, every candidate should pass a litmus test on what they will do to protect us against mass shooters. It is not good enough to obfuscate and offer sad platitudes like – it’s people, not guns, who kill. The fact is killers use guns to kill.
If lawmakers had passed stronger gun laws after Sandy Hook, the people in the supermarket in Buffalo, or the little children in Uvalde, might have had a chance to survive. If we don’t demand stronger gun laws now, prepare for Pennsylvania children to die, just as they did in Texas.
Quality local journalism has never been more important. You deserve the best. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
Ad Choices