Gun violence is the U.S. is out of control

I was one of the 850,000 people who journeyed to Washington, D.C., for the March For Our Lives on March 24.

As a mother of grown children, I cannot imagine the horror of losing a child to a senseless, coldblooded murder. A school is where children prepare for their future, not end it.

Massacres happen too often. This is an American problem. Other countries do not have this public health crisis. In the fervor of preserving Second Amendment rights at all costs, there is a denial of facts. It has become unsafe to let this denial go on without speaking up. The “bearing of arms” referred to in the Second Amendment refers to muskets, not modern weapons of war. Weapons have evolved, but common sense restrictions on them have not.

In 2008, former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, stated: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited…”. It is “…not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

There is clearly a sizable segment of the population who wants guns for hunting, self protection, etc., but there is no reason for high-capacity assault weapons that are capable of and used for mass murder of Americans. These weapons are designed to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. They are weapons of war and have no place for civilians in a civilized society.

The thing that struck me the most about the March For Our Lives was the young people and their palpable grief, PTSD and the fear that they could be next.

We have failed our young people. We have allowed them to be murdered in cold blood in their classrooms.

Flags at half mast, prayers, and thoughts do nothing! The NRA, whose mission is guns for all at all times, suggests that the answer is arming teachers. Teachers at the March loudly broadcast the fact that their “special skill” is not that of a sharpshooter. Police experts know that firearms training does not equip a teacher to kill an intruder with a handgun, let alone an intruder who has his assault weapon aimed at that teacher and is positioned to shoot. There is no scenario where arming teachers makes sense, except to the NRA and its bought-and-paidfor politicians! The huge attendance at the March For Our Lives have shown us what the facts have said. The vast majority of American voters, including gun-owning households, supports reinstating the ban on assault weapons, an end to the sale of high capacity magazines, universal background checks and increased waiting periods for gun purchases.

Gun violence in this country is out of control. It is not safe to go to concerts, movies, or even to school.

Thanks largely to the NRA and their bought-and-paid-for politicians, the rights of the armed are preserved far more than the rights of the unarmed. This is domestic terrorism. And it must stop!

The battle cry at the March was REV: R = Register to Vote, E = Educate yourself on each candidate’s position/action on gun violence, V = Vote.

I am asking you, reader and fellow citizen, to use your voice and vote.

The time to act is now.