Students all over the country are waking up earlier, packing their backpacks with fresh school supplies, adjusting to their new classes - and likely participating in their first active shooter drills of the school year.
I can remember the first time I learned how to hide from potential shooters in a lockdown drill: ten years old and crammed in the corner furthest from the classroom door, all of us sitting in silence - and fear. Because even though it was a drill, the recent Columbine shooting was fresh in our minds.
Those images traumatized our country, and the kids of my generation and every generation afterwards practice their drills each school year because it’s the only thing they can do.
In our unwillingness to take action, we’ve left our children to fend for themselves.
Every year that we’ve failed to adopt meaningful solutions to these issues, more children have been killed in schools and grocery stores, at parades and festivals and parks, in their places of worship and in their homes.
Enough is enough. No child should live in fear of getting shot, killed, or traumatized by gun violence. If you agree, please join me by adding your name to this petition demanding action.
There are real solutions and steps we can take - but first we have to call out our complacency and self-interest. We’ve allowed the NRA’s propaganda to seep into our collective consciousness - normalizing our pain and dissuading us from taking action in the name of personal liberty. This gun violence crisis isn’t normal at all - it’s a uniquely American experience, with the U.S. gun homicide rate 26 times higher than that of comparable countries.
For children, gun violence is especially deadly. Since 2021, gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and adolescents - surpassing those caused by car crashes, drug overdoses, and cancer. That is unimaginable and unacceptable.
Children dying by gun violence is a policy choice - one that too many of our elected officials continue to make over and over again. Too many elected officials still live in the pocket of the gun lobby, unwilling to take even the smallest steps to protect children out of fear they lose out on campaign contributions or get challenged in their next race.
Until we take real action, the epidemic of gun violence will continue to get worse, and we’ll keep hitting devastating milestones, like the fact that more than 500 people have been killed in mass shootings this year - the most at this point in at least ten years.
We need to take action by banning assault weapons, strengthening background checks, and passing red flag laws. Please join me by adding your name here.
One more thing: This inaction, this cowardice, this loyalty to the gun lobby? The truth is, it lies squarely with the GOP. It’s not just “elected officials” refusing to save lives - it’s Republican elected officials. So while we push for bipartisan action right now, we also need to prepare to do everything we can to take back a Democratic majority next year. I hope you’re with me.
Thanks so much.
-Sara
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