I respectfully disagree. That is exactly what the do-nothing lawmakers want you to believe. But they can be replaced, and we are just the people to do it. Donate to, volunteer for, and vote in gun-sense candidates to reduce gun violence. There are more of us, and growing! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go register students at our 5 Lee’s Summit high schools.
Yes, but we don't seem to replace them do we? That's my point. I have been doing all those things you suggest for years. And no, I won't stop doing those things. But I have been hoping for them do do something as long as I can remember and nothing of substance happens and people keep dying. When the Dems got the Assault Weapons ban through, deaths dropped. But it was removed. Back to doing nothing. The Supreme court and legislatures across out land have stripped virtually any existing common sense laws away. Our shit heel gov. Brian Kemp here in Georgia recently signed into law a no permit, no check, concealed carry law. Anybody with the cash can walk in purchase a weapon, and carry it around virtually anywhere they want for any reason (except the Georgia Capitol as Brian Kemp doesn't want to get shot himself.) We'll ban books, we'll ban transgender sports and drag queens reading to our children, we'll ban black history ... none of which kill people. But guns? Those we won't ban.
I would add if a pregnant woman has a doomed pregnancy (one where the fetus cannot survive, may not even have a heartbeat!) the woman is banned from having an abortion so that she suffers, risks permanent impairment and death.
Republicans are fine with death and dying. Cruelty is their point.
Kemp also said that "this is not the time" to talk about gun laws! I wrote him an email and asked WHEN IS THE TIME, GOVERNER???? When more children are dead? It's a typical tired, worn-out,-do nothing right wing reply. and I told him so!
As a fellow Georgia resident I couldn't agree more. Between douchebag Kemp and the cretinous Trumptards here, trying to get common sense gun laws passed is like pushing water uphill with a tennis racket.
I’d heard they arrested the father of that 14 y.o.and has been charged severely. Bought the gun for him…last Christmas . An AR-15 ? No red flags either ? JD Vance said school shooting are “just a fact of life” ?
I agree. My son died due to Wyoming s lax laws . That was in 2002 and since then, gun laws , requirements for gun owners, and laws to hold manufacturers responsible have gotten worse, This is a sickness that the #1 cause of death for our children is from gun violence and our elected officials won’t change the laws. I too do what I can, and I live in hope that our species will evolve, but I don’t think I will see it in my lifetime,
I also am sorry for your loss. To lose a child to senseless gun violence is terrible. That the gun violence is due to uncontrolled greed makes the loss even more tragic.
Are you in Missouri? Are you just registering students by having them register online?
I'm part of Adam Kinzinger's organization Country First & for our Dash for Democracy event this year, they want the regional leaders to organize a single day when we all register people to vote. So I'm a leader of the central region which includes Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, & maybe another state I'm forgetting off the top of my head. Anyway, as leaders we're supposed to motivate the members in our region to go out on Sept 20th &/or 21st to go out someplace in our states to register people to vote. If any of us live close together (we don't) we can go together otherwise we are to go on our own & virtually encourage each other.
I have tried to look it up but haven't found solid consistent information about what is legally allowed. My understanding though is, as long as we're not being paid or compensated then we can freely invite people to register to vote online can't we? Have a tablet & just put them on the website & assist them to fill out the info to register? That's what my understanding is.
This is the second community I am connected to that has had a shooting. I grew up in Newton, CT and I worked in Winder, GA. My boss' kids went to that HS.
It is horrifying.
And I have done so much work. I have shown up I have spoken up I have marched and marched and marched I have voted and canvassed and posted on SM
I spent a good part of last night in tears over the latest news of a school shooting - just as classes are starting across the country. It doesn't matter that "it was only a few casualties, thank goodness" which one neighbor casually said to me in the lobby of my building: "we can't get all upset about this every time it happens." I thought I was going to pass out - literally; I had nothing to say to her, but my entire brain was screaming: YES WE CAN AND WE SHOULD! I could only think what Jess says here: those people were somebody's whole world. They matter. And IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!
I got snapped at by a friend telling me that we can’t get upset every time. Oh YES WE CAN!! And we should be angry! She was upset when I snapped back, but I am NOT going to do nothing.
Thank you for speaking the truth! Let’s make this a movement. We are no longer going to tolerate their indifference. We can and will be upset every time. We will be angry. We will snap back. And we will Do Something.
While I no longer have a child or grandchild in school, I can’t imagine what teachers, students and parents must live with every day……the chance their child could be shot by someone who shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place, much less a semiautomatic weapon.
My heart goes out to all teachers who must live with this fear every day. The only way I think this madness will end is if the Democrats are able take control of the House, Senate and Presidency. We must put lives over profits something which doesn’t seem to matter to a large portion of our country.
I agree, but we can also replace our state lawmakers to make MO safer. My state house rep Jon Patterson voted against prohibiting children from carrying guns in public places. That’s why I’m donating to and volunteering to elect gun-sense candidate Kevin Grover for MO House District 30 to replace him. Tell everyone you know, this is something we can all do to make us all safer.
Are we being our great-grandparents who said the same things about the Nazis and Europe?
Why are we waiting for all Americans to see and accept the facts? They will not.
Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people! Which of the two are you going to get rid of?
We are currently getting rid of the people….
All the facts that have been generated by so many in so many countries at so many times will not sway the NRAers because they simply use their right to refuse to listen.
We must change things in spite of them.
Vote nothing but Blue because all of America’s children are counting on us.
"Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people! Which of the two are you going to get rid of?" Brilliant line, which I haven't seen before! I'm going to remember and use this one, thanks.
I still do not consider it *normal* to train our teachers and school children active shooter survival kills. Likewise, I haven't normalized being body scanned for concealed weapons at an airport. It still pisses me off. It seems though, that many Americans have simply learned and accepted this as the ways our country works. What we haven't learned, from our government's foreign policy and domestic failures, is that there is a solution to these daily problems, if we choose to solve them.
In 1997 Congress passed and President Clinton signed a bill into law stipulating "that none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control." Representative Jay Dickey (R - AR) was the architect of this bill at the behest of the NRA. To insure that the nefarious, ne'er do-wells at the CDC did not have the financial wherewithal to undertake gun violence research, Congress also defunded the CDC the exact amount it spent the previous year on gun violence research. A similar provision was included in a 2012 bill.
Our Congressional elected officials chose not to solve the mass killing problem by making it impossible and a career-ending no-no to do basic research on it. It's impossible to solve a problem that doesn't have one's full awareness.
You are more than welcome. Sometimes I remember the tip of an important factual iceberg but have to do a deep dive to gather the details. This was my most recent case in point. I heard that the CDC wasn't supposed to be studying gun violence so a quick dive into the icy cyber-waters jogged my memory.
Wayne, a bit off topic, but to your point about airports, I worked for the TSA when they started in 2002. Even then, it was staggering what people tried to carry on to a plane. I knew about things that were thwarted, and I guarantee you want that security. Especially with the changes in concealed carry laws.
Thank you RDB, for your service in keeping us safe while flying 30,000 feet above sea level into thin air at high speed packed like sardines in a tubular, aluminum conveyance.
I take your point and you help to make my point. I absolutely do enjoy the safety afforded by the creation of an entire army of front line TSA agents. I'm sure I would not be surprised at what people attempt to carry on board. Prior to 9/11, some people DID carry crazy stuff on board airplanes *without* incident. I once carried a 42" sword on a plane, pre-9/11. Instead of solving the problem created by a few bad actors, we instead changed our way of 'flight-life' forever.
I sincerely appreciate the work you did at the TSA but wish you'd have found a less stressful, higher-paying job at a Wall Street investment house. ;-) That's just my verbose way of saying, I prefer sanity that results in safety rather than enforced safety that promotes sanity.
Sorta reminds me how many non violent offenses inmates for marijuana possession spent 10+ years in prison…some are still there! No research done , lots of money to push arrests, The Killer Weed…The first Big Lie? Nobody died overdosed on MJ…how many from fentanyl in ‘23, opioids, and such….107K ! …not rocket science ! Nearly the same amount from the second Big Lie ‘It’s a hoax’ Pandemic 2019. How many have/will die from the third Big Lie 2020 ‘election stolen’ or the 4th in 2024 .
Sorry…small rant…it’s sad . Wonder how many of our sisters will die if health care isn’t clarified BY.A.DOCTOR.
They won’t do anything about the guns, except traumatize us further by ordering us to have pretend drills where they actually release smoke and bangs to further terrorize our children!
I’m a retired teacher and was just explaining lockdown drills to friends last night. I suddenly realized my heart was pounding and I felt such anxiety. I remembered practicing to remove my classroom’s window screens quickly, always standing by the fire extinguisher, a potential weapon, etc. I retired just before ALICE training began, and I was determined to be more aggressive than the “line the kids up on the floor away from the door and stay quiet” school of thought. Seven years later, nothing has changed. Of course, after Sandy Hook, I lost all faith in the government to solve this. Of all the unbelievable things going on this country, this is one of the absolute worst.
Teresa, thank you for your accurate observations. I was always haunted by the probability that, should there be an active shooter incident in my elementary school, the shooter would be a former student. I'm retired, and I thank God that I never had to have my heart torn apart like that. The drills were hard enough.
How is it that 13 y.o. “Known to the FBI” as a security threat was allowed to stay in a home with guns? Yes to everything Jess has said (thank you, Moms Demand)!
What saddens me more than I can say is that on hearing about the shooting in Georgia, I did not run to my phone or TV to read or see the news. I was not horrified. I was resigned. I didn’t want to read details about who died, speculation about the shooter’s motive. Same old same old. I was a high school teacher for 26 years. These were my people, and I was just…nothing.
Martha, I understand how you felt. I saw the news in WAPO and didn’t even read it at first. I wasn’t numb, but rather have become somewhat resolved that this is our new normal. And that’s just insane. I watched those Covenant parents in Nashville march on that capital building in the same city without a single thing changing. And gun violence is everywhere. My cousin is a teacher in Oklahoma. I asked her yesterday how things were going. She said kids today are just angry and mean. She’s taught at the same rural school for 25 years. I live in the St. Louis region, and it’s normal for there to be 3-5 shootings a day. I guess at 60 I remember when things were very different.
Ouch! I can empathize with your reaction but I still get angry and sad every time this happens. Does that make me abnormal for not having normalized this?
You know, Jess — all this and more! I was fuming listening to Gov. Kemp’s comments yesterday. He left out from his thoughts and prayers and “this is no time to talk policy” speech the myriad children and their families who have been permanently traumatized yesterday and for whom, absent physical wounds, no rush to help them is coming.
We must change the laws we have allowed the extremist gun-lobby to write/pass/enact.
This is so tragic and you are so right. Everything in this article makes complete sense and I am so very sorry for your traumatic experience with that so called training, it sounds like it only helped to traumatize you further about gun violence. I also don’t think you should’ve felt stupid because you were trying to protect those kids of yours and I think that is absolutely commendable, they neglected to send out an email informing teachers of the drill and you were rightfully skeptical. To me, that shows that you’re careful and considerate and imho have good instincts. Even though it did just turn out to be a planned fire drill, there’s nothing wrong with your actions at that time that I can see. Thank you for this excellent and very touching article. You make so much sense, if only the republicans could gain some common sense and make this country safer for teachers and students and everyone else for that matter. It’s horrifying to know that statistically children in the US are more likely to die by gun violence than by anything else. (I read that somewhere, I could be wrong but with all these awful shootings happening more and more those statistics make sense to me). It’s frustrating that they essentially only seem to pander to big businesses and corporations just for money it seems, it just looks like they care more about lining their pockets and their benefactors pockets than actually passing common sense gun laws. I wish common sense was something they had but it seems like they gave it up long ago in favor of financial gain. And you’re right, you don’t have to get over it, screw anyone who says so. Thank you for you excellent and informative article. You write beautifully. 🥰😊
You are correct. Guns are the #1 killer of children in this country. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change that by changing our lawmakers. Every one of them must be replaced by gun-sense candidates. Now you understand the assignment.
Thank you, Jess for exposing yet one more societal responsibility pressed upon teachers that we are nearly powerless to control. (Those PD's on school shootings are big money makers, too.)
One thing I'd add is that folks who think the answer is arming teachers are wrong to believe that we could shoot a threatening student. Or at least those who could are precisely the teachers who should NOT be armed.
Exactly! I don't think people consider the likelihood that the shooter is a student at the school that the teacher potentially knows! If the teachers could bring themselves to shoot their students, they wouldn't have become teachers.
Even if the teacher doesn't know the shooter, there's a reason teachers became teachers & not police officers or joined the military. There are people who seek out careers involving stressful, life threatening scenarios where shooting other humans is likely part of the job. Then there are people who seek out careers as teachers or healthcare workers where they aren't supposed to have to be in life threatening scenarios or should ever be expected to shoot another human in self defense.
Trying to turn the people who chose the careers that require compassion into the people who chose the careers that kill won't work. You can't force a person to be something they entirely are not.
Jess, I like your low-impact, common-sense approach to gun control. Every suggestion you described should not be considered to be infringing on the rights of our citizens to keep and bear arms. Unfortunately, the SCOTUS is packed with constitutional *originalists* who think the constitution is a document locked in time but still applicable in our vastly changed world.
My brother and I had a conversation about this and concluded that constitutional originalism demands that the test of 'infringement' rests on the ability for citizens to buy and carry any gun that they might be confronted with themselves. In this paradox of firepower equality, some of our justices have yielded their common sense to a belief that our founding fathers were omniscient seers who regularly peered into their crystal balls to divine the future. It's easy enough from that understanding to take the next logical step and conclude that every word of the original constitution is inerrant, divinely inspired and not open to interpretation except by the civil clergy who hold these views.
My take on gun control is far more radical than yours.
1. Every gun manufactured or imported into this country must carry a unique identifier (WID - weapon ID), like the VIN on every vehicle.
2. Every gun manufactured must be registered to one and only one individual at a time, like vehicle registration. The registration must be renewed every year by the current owner.
3. Every purchase of a gun must include a transfer of title to that gun, you know, sorta like a vehicle.
4. Every gun owner is required to carry a minimum of $1M in liability insurance in case the owner is at fault in a gun accident or intentionally shoots another person. Yep, kinda like vehicles.
5. Before anyone can own or carry a gun, the applicant for a registration must have completed (fill in a number) of hours of gun safety and ownership responsibility training. Why do vehicles get all the good stuff?
Motor vehicles are heavily regulated because of the possibility that one may be involved in breaking a law, giving law enforcement officers a head start in identifying the perpetrator, i.e. the driver. Why can't guns be likewise regulated? Because they are protected from any infringement on ownership and possession by the second amendment to our constitution. The better question to ask is what common sense steps can be taken to uphold the 'spirit of the second amendment' without creating a real, undue burden on ownership and possession by trained and qualified individuals? Unless the originalists think children of any age should have the same rights as adults under the second amendment, there appears to be a wide gulf which could be purposefully bridged on this issue.
Wayne, you’re not the only one thinking that guns and ownership should have similar requirements to motor vehicles and vessels. I’ve considered these points. To me, an ID on each weapon is an absolute. Also, outlaw build-it-yourself ghost guns. I can build myself a personal computer, that’s fine. It’s not going to kill anyone unless you purposely want to electrocute yourself.
Guns are not devices. They’re weapons. If ghost guns are allowed, in addition to verifying the parts, that weapon must be registered. No exceptions. I can write a long article about everything required for gun ownership, safety, and regulation. But I’ll end by saying that the first things to do is pull tactical weapons off the public market and reform the police force’s equipment allocations.
As usual Jess, you are right. Everything you said is right and should be done (and more.) but it won't.
As I wrote in my substack this morning, we will ban children before we ban our weapons.
This country has a sick, terrible, disease.
T
I respectfully disagree. That is exactly what the do-nothing lawmakers want you to believe. But they can be replaced, and we are just the people to do it. Donate to, volunteer for, and vote in gun-sense candidates to reduce gun violence. There are more of us, and growing! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go register students at our 5 Lee’s Summit high schools.
Yes, but we don't seem to replace them do we? That's my point. I have been doing all those things you suggest for years. And no, I won't stop doing those things. But I have been hoping for them do do something as long as I can remember and nothing of substance happens and people keep dying. When the Dems got the Assault Weapons ban through, deaths dropped. But it was removed. Back to doing nothing. The Supreme court and legislatures across out land have stripped virtually any existing common sense laws away. Our shit heel gov. Brian Kemp here in Georgia recently signed into law a no permit, no check, concealed carry law. Anybody with the cash can walk in purchase a weapon, and carry it around virtually anywhere they want for any reason (except the Georgia Capitol as Brian Kemp doesn't want to get shot himself.) We'll ban books, we'll ban transgender sports and drag queens reading to our children, we'll ban black history ... none of which kill people. But guns? Those we won't ban.
I would add if a pregnant woman has a doomed pregnancy (one where the fetus cannot survive, may not even have a heartbeat!) the woman is banned from having an abortion so that she suffers, risks permanent impairment and death.
Republicans are fine with death and dying. Cruelty is their point.
Kemp also said that "this is not the time" to talk about gun laws! I wrote him an email and asked WHEN IS THE TIME, GOVERNER???? When more children are dead? It's a typical tired, worn-out,-do nothing right wing reply. and I told him so!
I thought the exact same thing when I heard him say that.
As a fellow Georgia resident I couldn't agree more. Between douchebag Kemp and the cretinous Trumptards here, trying to get common sense gun laws passed is like pushing water uphill with a tennis racket.
Thank you for everything you do. You are not alone. We are pulling for and with you.
I’d heard they arrested the father of that 14 y.o.and has been charged severely. Bought the gun for him…last Christmas . An AR-15 ? No red flags either ? JD Vance said school shooting are “just a fact of life” ?
Yup , in America they are.
Not.In.Any.Other.Country.
Kemp needs replaced. 2026 Let the Blue take it again folks 💙👍
💙💙VOTE BLUE END THE COUP💙💙
If anyone still votes for Trump/Vance after that comment, I can only believe they are pure evil.
I agree. My son died due to Wyoming s lax laws . That was in 2002 and since then, gun laws , requirements for gun owners, and laws to hold manufacturers responsible have gotten worse, This is a sickness that the #1 cause of death for our children is from gun violence and our elected officials won’t change the laws. I too do what I can, and I live in hope that our species will evolve, but I don’t think I will see it in my lifetime,
I also am sorry for your loss. To lose a child to senseless gun violence is terrible. That the gun violence is due to uncontrolled greed makes the loss even more tragic.
I am sorry for your loss. Thank you for doing what you can, and for your hope. You inspire others.
Are you in Missouri? Are you just registering students by having them register online?
I'm part of Adam Kinzinger's organization Country First & for our Dash for Democracy event this year, they want the regional leaders to organize a single day when we all register people to vote. So I'm a leader of the central region which includes Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, & maybe another state I'm forgetting off the top of my head. Anyway, as leaders we're supposed to motivate the members in our region to go out on Sept 20th &/or 21st to go out someplace in our states to register people to vote. If any of us live close together (we don't) we can go together otherwise we are to go on our own & virtually encourage each other.
I have tried to look it up but haven't found solid consistent information about what is legally allowed. My understanding though is, as long as we're not being paid or compensated then we can freely invite people to register to vote online can't we? Have a tablet & just put them on the website & assist them to fill out the info to register? That's what my understanding is.
Yes, I am in MO, and yes, that’s my understanding, also. Thank you for your work!
I belong to the League of Women Voters. We have voter registration forms that people fill out, and we turn them in to our local election boards.
Sept. 17 is National Voter Registration Day, but have voter registration drives almost everywhere and almost every day of the year.
I'm in Springfield. By any chance is there one on Sept 20th or 21st? That's a Fri and Sat.
Yes. We have 2 on 9/21
SMB Church/Grandview VOTER REG
Starts: September 21, 2024
Finishes: September 21, 2024
We'll be attending this church's Community Fair that will also feature a
lot of health-related vendors, service providers and organizations. We
will offer all kinds of information for voters, and registration of course.
VOTER REG/GOTV @ Penn Valley Park
Starts: September 21, 2024
Finishes: September 21, 2024
We'll be at the National Treasury Employees' Union picnic event; we will
table and distribute voting information. Our focus will be promoting vote411
as a resource for registration and voting information. We'll also talk about
voting topics like absentee options, resources for states' guidelines,
finding polling places, etc.
This is the second community I am connected to that has had a shooting. I grew up in Newton, CT and I worked in Winder, GA. My boss' kids went to that HS.
It is horrifying.
And I have done so much work. I have shown up I have spoken up I have marched and marched and marched I have voted and canvassed and posted on SM
And I am tired and scared
And I will keep doing it anyway
Thank you so much for all your hard work, it’s very appreciated. 🥰
Thank you for what you are doing.
I spent a good part of last night in tears over the latest news of a school shooting - just as classes are starting across the country. It doesn't matter that "it was only a few casualties, thank goodness" which one neighbor casually said to me in the lobby of my building: "we can't get all upset about this every time it happens." I thought I was going to pass out - literally; I had nothing to say to her, but my entire brain was screaming: YES WE CAN AND WE SHOULD! I could only think what Jess says here: those people were somebody's whole world. They matter. And IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!
I got snapped at by a friend telling me that we can’t get upset every time. Oh YES WE CAN!! And we should be angry! She was upset when I snapped back, but I am NOT going to do nothing.
Thank you for speaking the truth! Let’s make this a movement. We are no longer going to tolerate their indifference. We can and will be upset every time. We will be angry. We will snap back. And we will Do Something.
Top 13 Republican Excuses To Do Nothing About Gun Violence
https://infogram.com/top-10-republican-excuses-for-doing-nothing-about-gun-violence-1hnp27e5qogln4g
The Apalachee High Shooting Tragedy highlights the role of dark money on politics. Follow the money behind GOP weakened gun laws. Spot the correlation between the Republican led states that get the most gun lobby money and the number of mass shootings. https://thedemlabs.org/2024/09/04/apalachee-high-shooting-tragedy-follow-the-money-behind-gop-weakened-gun-laws/
😡😡😢😢😡😡😢😢😡😡
Much of that money has seen the light of day because the gun lobby knows it is their sacrosanct method of "redressing" government overreach.
While I no longer have a child or grandchild in school, I can’t imagine what teachers, students and parents must live with every day……the chance their child could be shot by someone who shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place, much less a semiautomatic weapon.
My heart goes out to all teachers who must live with this fear every day. The only way I think this madness will end is if the Democrats are able take control of the House, Senate and Presidency. We must put lives over profits something which doesn’t seem to matter to a large portion of our country.
I agree, but we can also replace our state lawmakers to make MO safer. My state house rep Jon Patterson voted against prohibiting children from carrying guns in public places. That’s why I’m donating to and volunteering to elect gun-sense candidate Kevin Grover for MO House District 30 to replace him. Tell everyone you know, this is something we can all do to make us all safer.
Love that talk Brenda 💙💙VOTE BLUE END THE COUP BLUE TSUNAMI💙💙
As long as it’s someone else’s child….
As long as it’s someone else’s school….
As long as it’s someone else’s problem….
Are we being our great-grandparents who said the same things about the Nazis and Europe?
Why are we waiting for all Americans to see and accept the facts? They will not.
Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people! Which of the two are you going to get rid of?
We are currently getting rid of the people….
All the facts that have been generated by so many in so many countries at so many times will not sway the NRAers because they simply use their right to refuse to listen.
We must change things in spite of them.
Vote nothing but Blue because all of America’s children are counting on us.
"Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people! Which of the two are you going to get rid of?" Brilliant line, which I haven't seen before! I'm going to remember and use this one, thanks.
Glad I could help. I am the blind squirrel that can still find a nut.
I still do not consider it *normal* to train our teachers and school children active shooter survival kills. Likewise, I haven't normalized being body scanned for concealed weapons at an airport. It still pisses me off. It seems though, that many Americans have simply learned and accepted this as the ways our country works. What we haven't learned, from our government's foreign policy and domestic failures, is that there is a solution to these daily problems, if we choose to solve them.
In 1997 Congress passed and President Clinton signed a bill into law stipulating "that none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control." Representative Jay Dickey (R - AR) was the architect of this bill at the behest of the NRA. To insure that the nefarious, ne'er do-wells at the CDC did not have the financial wherewithal to undertake gun violence research, Congress also defunded the CDC the exact amount it spent the previous year on gun violence research. A similar provision was included in a 2012 bill.
Our Congressional elected officials chose not to solve the mass killing problem by making it impossible and a career-ending no-no to do basic research on it. It's impossible to solve a problem that doesn't have one's full awareness.
Thank you for this information. I did not know that. Everytown.org does the research our government doesn’t want us to have.
You are more than welcome. Sometimes I remember the tip of an important factual iceberg but have to do a deep dive to gather the details. This was my most recent case in point. I heard that the CDC wasn't supposed to be studying gun violence so a quick dive into the icy cyber-waters jogged my memory.
Wayne, a bit off topic, but to your point about airports, I worked for the TSA when they started in 2002. Even then, it was staggering what people tried to carry on to a plane. I knew about things that were thwarted, and I guarantee you want that security. Especially with the changes in concealed carry laws.
Thank you RDB, for your service in keeping us safe while flying 30,000 feet above sea level into thin air at high speed packed like sardines in a tubular, aluminum conveyance.
I take your point and you help to make my point. I absolutely do enjoy the safety afforded by the creation of an entire army of front line TSA agents. I'm sure I would not be surprised at what people attempt to carry on board. Prior to 9/11, some people DID carry crazy stuff on board airplanes *without* incident. I once carried a 42" sword on a plane, pre-9/11. Instead of solving the problem created by a few bad actors, we instead changed our way of 'flight-life' forever.
I sincerely appreciate the work you did at the TSA but wish you'd have found a less stressful, higher-paying job at a Wall Street investment house. ;-) That's just my verbose way of saying, I prefer sanity that results in safety rather than enforced safety that promotes sanity.
Sorta reminds me how many non violent offenses inmates for marijuana possession spent 10+ years in prison…some are still there! No research done , lots of money to push arrests, The Killer Weed…The first Big Lie? Nobody died overdosed on MJ…how many from fentanyl in ‘23, opioids, and such….107K ! …not rocket science ! Nearly the same amount from the second Big Lie ‘It’s a hoax’ Pandemic 2019. How many have/will die from the third Big Lie 2020 ‘election stolen’ or the 4th in 2024 .
Sorry…small rant…it’s sad . Wonder how many of our sisters will die if health care isn’t clarified BY.A.DOCTOR.
💙💙Vote Blue💙💙
Too many. Rant away!
They won’t do anything about the guns, except traumatize us further by ordering us to have pretend drills where they actually release smoke and bangs to further terrorize our children!
Yep, Jess characterized her 'drill' very vividly. If you haven't read her post, I urge you to do so.
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Unconscionable.
I’m a retired teacher and was just explaining lockdown drills to friends last night. I suddenly realized my heart was pounding and I felt such anxiety. I remembered practicing to remove my classroom’s window screens quickly, always standing by the fire extinguisher, a potential weapon, etc. I retired just before ALICE training began, and I was determined to be more aggressive than the “line the kids up on the floor away from the door and stay quiet” school of thought. Seven years later, nothing has changed. Of course, after Sandy Hook, I lost all faith in the government to solve this. Of all the unbelievable things going on this country, this is one of the absolute worst.
Teresa, thank you for your accurate observations. I was always haunted by the probability that, should there be an active shooter incident in my elementary school, the shooter would be a former student. I'm retired, and I thank God that I never had to have my heart torn apart like that. The drills were hard enough.
I’m thankful, too, but now I have to worry about my teacher son and daughter-in-law and my grandkids. It’s all horrifying.
How is it that 13 y.o. “Known to the FBI” as a security threat was allowed to stay in a home with guns? Yes to everything Jess has said (thank you, Moms Demand)!
What saddens me more than I can say is that on hearing about the shooting in Georgia, I did not run to my phone or TV to read or see the news. I was not horrified. I was resigned. I didn’t want to read details about who died, speculation about the shooter’s motive. Same old same old. I was a high school teacher for 26 years. These were my people, and I was just…nothing.
Martha, I understand how you felt. I saw the news in WAPO and didn’t even read it at first. I wasn’t numb, but rather have become somewhat resolved that this is our new normal. And that’s just insane. I watched those Covenant parents in Nashville march on that capital building in the same city without a single thing changing. And gun violence is everywhere. My cousin is a teacher in Oklahoma. I asked her yesterday how things were going. She said kids today are just angry and mean. She’s taught at the same rural school for 25 years. I live in the St. Louis region, and it’s normal for there to be 3-5 shootings a day. I guess at 60 I remember when things were very different.
Ouch! I can empathize with your reaction but I still get angry and sad every time this happens. Does that make me abnormal for not having normalized this?
No, it doesn’t make you abnormal. It just makes me despondent with the way things are today.
I heard that and empathize again. There are times though that normal is kinda overrated.
I hope my reaction is the abnormal one, even if understandable.
You know, Jess — all this and more! I was fuming listening to Gov. Kemp’s comments yesterday. He left out from his thoughts and prayers and “this is no time to talk policy” speech the myriad children and their families who have been permanently traumatized yesterday and for whom, absent physical wounds, no rush to help them is coming.
We must change the laws we have allowed the extremist gun-lobby to write/pass/enact.
Powerful. Thank you for this.
They wonder why we have a nation of anxious children.
This is so tragic and you are so right. Everything in this article makes complete sense and I am so very sorry for your traumatic experience with that so called training, it sounds like it only helped to traumatize you further about gun violence. I also don’t think you should’ve felt stupid because you were trying to protect those kids of yours and I think that is absolutely commendable, they neglected to send out an email informing teachers of the drill and you were rightfully skeptical. To me, that shows that you’re careful and considerate and imho have good instincts. Even though it did just turn out to be a planned fire drill, there’s nothing wrong with your actions at that time that I can see. Thank you for this excellent and very touching article. You make so much sense, if only the republicans could gain some common sense and make this country safer for teachers and students and everyone else for that matter. It’s horrifying to know that statistically children in the US are more likely to die by gun violence than by anything else. (I read that somewhere, I could be wrong but with all these awful shootings happening more and more those statistics make sense to me). It’s frustrating that they essentially only seem to pander to big businesses and corporations just for money it seems, it just looks like they care more about lining their pockets and their benefactors pockets than actually passing common sense gun laws. I wish common sense was something they had but it seems like they gave it up long ago in favor of financial gain. And you’re right, you don’t have to get over it, screw anyone who says so. Thank you for you excellent and informative article. You write beautifully. 🥰😊
You are correct. Guns are the #1 killer of children in this country. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change that by changing our lawmakers. Every one of them must be replaced by gun-sense candidates. Now you understand the assignment.
Thank you, Jess for exposing yet one more societal responsibility pressed upon teachers that we are nearly powerless to control. (Those PD's on school shootings are big money makers, too.)
One thing I'd add is that folks who think the answer is arming teachers are wrong to believe that we could shoot a threatening student. Or at least those who could are precisely the teachers who should NOT be armed.
Exactly! I don't think people consider the likelihood that the shooter is a student at the school that the teacher potentially knows! If the teachers could bring themselves to shoot their students, they wouldn't have become teachers.
Even if the teacher doesn't know the shooter, there's a reason teachers became teachers & not police officers or joined the military. There are people who seek out careers involving stressful, life threatening scenarios where shooting other humans is likely part of the job. Then there are people who seek out careers as teachers or healthcare workers where they aren't supposed to have to be in life threatening scenarios or should ever be expected to shoot another human in self defense.
Trying to turn the people who chose the careers that require compassion into the people who chose the careers that kill won't work. You can't force a person to be something they entirely are not.
Jess, I like your low-impact, common-sense approach to gun control. Every suggestion you described should not be considered to be infringing on the rights of our citizens to keep and bear arms. Unfortunately, the SCOTUS is packed with constitutional *originalists* who think the constitution is a document locked in time but still applicable in our vastly changed world.
My brother and I had a conversation about this and concluded that constitutional originalism demands that the test of 'infringement' rests on the ability for citizens to buy and carry any gun that they might be confronted with themselves. In this paradox of firepower equality, some of our justices have yielded their common sense to a belief that our founding fathers were omniscient seers who regularly peered into their crystal balls to divine the future. It's easy enough from that understanding to take the next logical step and conclude that every word of the original constitution is inerrant, divinely inspired and not open to interpretation except by the civil clergy who hold these views.
My take on gun control is far more radical than yours.
1. Every gun manufactured or imported into this country must carry a unique identifier (WID - weapon ID), like the VIN on every vehicle.
2. Every gun manufactured must be registered to one and only one individual at a time, like vehicle registration. The registration must be renewed every year by the current owner.
3. Every purchase of a gun must include a transfer of title to that gun, you know, sorta like a vehicle.
4. Every gun owner is required to carry a minimum of $1M in liability insurance in case the owner is at fault in a gun accident or intentionally shoots another person. Yep, kinda like vehicles.
5. Before anyone can own or carry a gun, the applicant for a registration must have completed (fill in a number) of hours of gun safety and ownership responsibility training. Why do vehicles get all the good stuff?
Motor vehicles are heavily regulated because of the possibility that one may be involved in breaking a law, giving law enforcement officers a head start in identifying the perpetrator, i.e. the driver. Why can't guns be likewise regulated? Because they are protected from any infringement on ownership and possession by the second amendment to our constitution. The better question to ask is what common sense steps can be taken to uphold the 'spirit of the second amendment' without creating a real, undue burden on ownership and possession by trained and qualified individuals? Unless the originalists think children of any age should have the same rights as adults under the second amendment, there appears to be a wide gulf which could be purposefully bridged on this issue.
Excellent points, Wayne. What about banning assault weapons?
Wayne, you’re not the only one thinking that guns and ownership should have similar requirements to motor vehicles and vessels. I’ve considered these points. To me, an ID on each weapon is an absolute. Also, outlaw build-it-yourself ghost guns. I can build myself a personal computer, that’s fine. It’s not going to kill anyone unless you purposely want to electrocute yourself.
Guns are not devices. They’re weapons. If ghost guns are allowed, in addition to verifying the parts, that weapon must be registered. No exceptions. I can write a long article about everything required for gun ownership, safety, and regulation. But I’ll end by saying that the first things to do is pull tactical weapons off the public market and reform the police force’s equipment allocations.