Thoughts and prayers don’t cut it for amazing Parkland kids
eb. 14, Valentine’s Day, 2018: 17 dead and 14 wounded in another gun-induced school massacre in America. It has happened so often, that we know the ritual — shock, horror, and dismay, and 24/7 news coverage ... for about a week or two. Activists for gun violence prevention cry out for the state and federal government to do something, but the lawmakers say, “It is too early to talk about new laws” ... “Don’t politicize a tragedy” ... “Your thoughts and prayers are with the families” ... within about two weeks, the news cycle goes on to other things, and America collectively buries the memory of yet another school shooting as a repressed nightmare. But not this time! This time is different. It is different because the teenagers of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High reacted with anger and fury that something like this can happen at their school, that gun shootings can and do happen at many schools, and they were going to do something about it. They organized, they tweeted, and they invited press coverage about their fledgling student driven movement that is a wonder to behold ... #Never Again. These students are so passionate, intelligent and driven, that they have been able to accomplish in five short weeks since the shooting real change. Consider: 1. Florida passed into law: • banning of bump stocks • three-day waiting period buying a gun
• raise the buy a gun
• extreme risk protection orderagainst someone deemed dangerous from owning a gun
The Parkland kids gave this bill, which is now Florida law, a C-minus grade when asked about it on “60 Minutes,” but made change a reality by organizing and marching on Tallahassee, which is controlled by gun rights-backed politicians, including Gov. Rick Scott, who consistently gets an A rating from the NRA. For them to pass this bill with meaningful gun violence prevention measures in three weeks time is nothing short of amazing!
2. The federal government is poised to pass a spending bill to keep the government open that will include three gun violence provisions: age from 18 to 21 in to • Fix NICS bill, encouraging and requiring all states to put all records of dangerous people into the nation NICS data base for background checks
• CDC Funding for gun violence research — having been outlawed by the Dickey Amendment since 2005, now allowed
• Funding for Mental Health and Safety Programs for schools
3. Consider our state of Pennsylvania, for the first time in memory, Sen. Tom Killion’s gun violence prevention bill passed the Pa. Senate on March 21st: a domestic violence restraining order that would require anyone slapped with a Protection From Abuse Order to turn in guns owned to the police in 24 hours. It is up to the Pa. House to turn this very good bill into law.
These provisions are far short of what the Parkland kids want, and what gun violence prevention groups have been advocating for many years, like a renewed assault weapons ban, and universal background checks. But it is really awe inspiring that so much has happened so fast, and that the Parkland kids have galvanized a nation. On March 14, they organized a walkout with 3,100 schools and 185,000 kids demonstrating for the Parkland dead.
On March 24, an estimated half a million descended on Washington, D.C., to advocate for gun safety, with sister marches all over, including West Chester and Delaware County.
These kids are smart, determined, social media savvy, and will not stop until our nation wakes up and takes school safety, and gun violence prevention seriously.
For those in the media, like Christine Flowers, who claim the Parkland kids are “appropriating the tragedy of their classmates for political goals, and are puppets of the Women’s March”, or like Chris Friend, who claims that “the students are not the primary driver behind the protests, that they are driven by ‘leftist’ organizations ... and the best way to honor the victims is to leave politics at the door and say a prayer,” the kids say, BS!
No one can take over this student movement, which is genuine, organic, and honest.
No more thoughts and prayers — the kids, and America demand action — NOW! the state and federal levels of government.
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