Fellow Advocate, 

In 11th grade Spanish, I sat next to Rich –  a quiet, good-looking senior with a nice smile.  When school resumed after winter break, Rich did not return. He had used an unsecured firearm to kill his dad, and then to take his own life.  School personnel never checked in with the rest of us to see how we were doing. There was no counseling, no debrief. 

It was the 1980s. During the next decade, two seniors at Columbine high school took their rage – and their guns – into the school, and massacred 13 lives and then killed themselves. 

Since then, we’ve entered the terrible era of normalized school shootings and have all recognized the crisis of gun violence in schools. Our society has put in place a flurry of new policies and programs: new mental health supports for students, apps for kids to report dangerous behaviors, lock down drills, even giving our kids bulletproof backpacks and wishing them the best.

BUT all of this  doesn’t get to the root cause of the problem and places a tremendous burden on our kids: go to therapy, report a threat, run→hide→fight. When will the grown-ups  take on the burden and do their jobs of keeping kids safe at school by addressing unfettered access to weapons?

Here at CeaseFirePA, we are trying to put the onus back where it belongs – on the shoulders of adults, and especially legislators. We’re demanding our lawmakers pass measures proven to keep guns away from kids, like safe storage and Extreme Risk Protection Orders, to keep firearms away from people in crisis, like Rich. Will you join our call by sending a message to your State Representative and State Senator before we wrap up our back to school campaign this week?

I know it’s too late to save Rich and his dad. I truly believe, however, that if we act now, we can protect future generations from unspeakable, preventable tragedy at and around our schools.

Let’s keep kids and families safe,

Carol Lastowka
Organizing Manager
CeaseFirePA