Different Takes: Lessons Learned From Teens Wanting Gun Control; Guns Laws Don’t Stop Killers
Opinion writers focus on the public health crisis brought about by gun violence.
USA Today:
March For Our Lives: Gun Control Is A Tough Road
As tens of thousands of students gear up to march Saturday in the nation’s capital and from Burlington, Vt., to Salem, Ore., a pivotal question looms: Can they push an immovable Congress to do more to fight gun violence? Emma Gonzalez, 18, a survivor of the shooting at Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., tweeted Thursday that the students are going to “make history together. ”They’ve already had some successes. They’ve focused the nation’s all-too-short attention span for more than a month on the massacre of 17 students and teachers at their high school. And they’ve beaten the odds in the Florida Legislature, which raised the age to 21 to buy assault-style weapons, over opposition from the National Rifle Association. (3/22)
Louisville Courier-Journal:
Gun Laws Don't Keep People From Finding Ways To Kill Innocents
In light of the recent call for the government to “do something” to prevent gun violence, maybe the paranoia has subsided enough that Courier Journal readers can entertain a little logic being injected into the problem. First, let me say that gun owners hate what has happened as much as anyone, but they realize that just passing more regulatory bureaucracy will do nothing to curb the problem. Any time a person wishes to break the law, they can find the means to do so. It doesn’t matter how much you regulate or make something illegal, it doesn’t prevent someone with a deranged mind from doing what they want to do. (Mike O'Brien, 3/22)
Los Angeles Times:
The 'adults In The Room' Now Are The Kids Marching In The Streets
They're self-absorbed, consumeristic, politically disconnected, addicted to spouting their opinions on Facebook, and never show up when it counts. They seem unable to complete the most basic, practical tasks. Adults really are ruining America. (Ann Friedman, 3/23)
New England Journal of Medicine:
Broken Hearts And Opened Eyes
We need stricter gun-control laws that are strongly enforced. We know from our experience in Massachusetts that such a regulatory regime makes a meaningful difference in health outcomes. But we cannot wait for Congress or other states to take action. We also need to invest in strategies that promote interventions in other venues, including the doctor’s office. That is why we led a collaboration among researchers, clinicians, public health advocates, and law-enforcement officials, developed through a partnership between the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, to equip providers with tools to counsel patients and families on risk mitigation for firearms. This tool kit was designed to help providers feel more comfortable in engaging in a conversation, without judgment, about firearm safety and to provide them with real-world information necessary to take part in problem-solving with patients about minimizing exposure to unwanted harms, just as doctors do in countless other contexts. We need to normalize discussions about firearm violence and the threat it presents to public health, wherever those discussions happen, whether in the school administrator’s office, on the playing fields, in community settings, or among parents. (Charles A. Morris and Jonathan B. Miller, 3/22)
The Washington Post:
I Run Dick’s Sporting Goods. We’re Doing Our Part. Now It’s Congress’ Turn To Do Something About Guns
In the weeks since we at Dick’s Sporting Goods announced plans to stop selling assault-style rifles, plans to only sell firearms to those over 21 and other new policies, we have been striving to keep this conversation going. We have met with a number of lawmakers and have talked with many of our peers in the retail industry. We have spoken with strong-willed advocacy groups and visited with families in Parkland. It is becoming increasingly apparent through our conversations that there continues to be deep skepticism that anything of substance will be done. (Edward Stack, 3/22)
The Washington Post:
If Gun Control Lures Millennial Voters, America As We Know It Will Cease To Exist
If gun control becomes the gateway issue that entices distrustful millennials into the voting booth, America is in for a makeover. Never before has this country produced a generation with political views and demographic traits so different from those of its elders. On nearly every important issue — immigration, health care, climate change, gender equality, racial disparity, sexual identity, economic inequality, size of government, use of military force, presidential disapproval — millennials are by far our most liberal adult generation. (Paul Taylor, 3/22)
Louisville Courier-Journal:
School Shootings: NRA-Backed Politicians Have Blood On Their Hands
A few weeks ago, I was looking through my third-grade writer’s notebook and found a pro-and-con diagram I had drawn for each side of the gun control debate. On the left I gave the pro-gun argument where I argued that guns are used for recreation and defense. On the right I said in response to those points “assault weapons are not necessary for this. ”While my entry is not dated, I assume I wrote it shortly after 20 children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. (Satchel Walton, 3/22)
USA Today:
Guns Killed 3 Of My Harvard Classmates. Privilege Doesn't Keep You Safe.
If gun violence has not yet touched your life, I can tell you there is no pocket of privilege safe enough that it can’t happen to you or your kids. I am 45, and in the past decade, I lost three classmates from Harvard College to three separate gun shootings in three states. I have been to memorial lectures and film screenings and talked to Harvard administrators about honorary benches and scholarships. But these early deaths of my classmates are not like young cancer deaths that we can only mourn over and are powerless to avert. (Vineeta Vijayaraghavan, 3/23)
USA Today:
Firearms Coalition: 'Solutions' Won’t Save Lives
Students and much of the nation have been misled, and worse. The students’ grief is being exploited for political gain in the wake of the atrocity in Parkland, Fla. The “solutions” being fed to well-intentioned people will do nothing — and can do nothing — to prevent another attack like Parkland. We feel the same grief and frustration. The difference is that we understand that the gun control proposals being put forward won’t save a single life. Not one. (Chris and Jeff Knox, 3/22)
The Washington Post:
My Daughter Died At Parkland. It’s Now My Job To Be Her Voice.
My beautiful daughter was only 14 when she was shot and killed in her classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. ...In honor of Alyssa, and all the other young men and women and educators who were shot and killed in Parkland, Fla., a group of surviving students from Stoneman Douglas started the March for Our Lives. On Saturday, I will march in my daughter’s honor in Washington. I am moved beyond words that student organizers from across the country and the world will host more than 800 sibling marches that day. In Alyssa’s name, I ask our lawmakers: Why hasn’t anything been done? There is so much elected officials can do to make our children safer in their schools. And they can make all Americans safer by strengthening our gun laws. (Lori Alhadeff, 3/22)
