Every time I hear calls for arming teachers with guns, I am almost breathless with disbelief. Bringing guns and gun fights into schools as a solution to school shootings defies all reason.
Let’s ask ourselves if the following scenes are the pictures of safe schools:
• Six-year-olds sitting on the floor playing math games with their teacher who has a gun under his or her sweater?
• The gym teacher spotting kids on the balance beam or refereeing a volleyball game with a gun holstered to his or her hip?
• The time when an angry student loses control and tries to wrestle a gun away from an armed teacher?
Let’s pass laws that limit the risks of shooters at schools, churches, shopping malls, streets:
• Ban the sale of guns to anyone under the age of 21, any guns – internet, private sale, gun kits, you name it.
• Pass and enforce universal background checks.
• Ban the sale of semi-automatic assault rifles. There is no reason any private citizen needs one.
And let’s understand the 2nd Amendment for what it really says. Was it a well-regulated militia that attacked children and teachers in Uvalde? Shoppers in Buffalo?
If you recognize the fact that individuals conduct the shameful number of mass shootings in our country, then you understand the difference between what the Constitution says and what the gun lobby and right wing-extremists want it to say.
Mary Tracy
Portland
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