The recent deadly school shooting in Nashville is just one of 129 mass shootings in 2023 alone. Our children and grandchildren are being shot to death in schools where they have a right to be safe. GOP lawmakers say there is no way to stop the carnage. These same Republican lawmakers are passing laws to outlaw critical race theory so that children don’t have to know that slavery used to be a thing in our country. These Republican lawmakers are passing laws to go after trans people doing drag shows because they don’t want children to be disturbed by seeing that. But when it comes to passing sensible gun laws that would save the lives of these children they care so much about, these same lawmakers throw up their hands in helpless defeat or say the only answer they can think of is that teachers need to have weapons of war in their classrooms to fight back or that side doors at the school are to blame and should be “hardened”. That’s just BS!
Republicans have resisted proposals such as the one for universal background checks for gun buyers, despite remarkably broad support from the public for such plans — support that can reach up to 90 percent nationwide in some cases.
The reality is that that 90 percent figure probably includes some Republicans who are open to new laws, but would not clamor for them or punish a lawmaker for failing to back them, and the 10 percent opposed reflect the sentiments of the G.O.P. base, which decides primary contests and is zealous in its devotion to gun rights.
“We don’t want to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican, explaining why members of his party have no interest in imposing new regulations on gun purchases, even after the murder of 19 children and two teachers, the latest in a seemingly unending series of shooting massacres in the United States. (NYT)
These Republicans are willing to turn schools into fortresses that could still be breached by anyone intent on a massacre with an AR-15 instead of tackling the gun problem with reasonable safety measures such as red flag laws, bans on sales of AR-15s, and national gun registries as well as other effective legislation to address what has become a shameful national emergency.
No child should die at school in a massacre. No parent should worry that when their children go to school they could be shot dead in the most horrific way – their bodies torn apart by a weapon that was created for ultimate lethality, designed to kill the greatest possible number of enemies in a war zone. Shame on you Republicans! Schools should be safe. Since when does a Second Amendment right to have an AR-15 supersede the rights of our children and their teachers to be safe in their schools? Why don’t we have a right to be safe when we go to a parade in a suburb like Highland Park, or go to church or synagogue to pray for that matter? You legislators are failing not only our kids and grandkids, you are failing all of us by refusing to address the gun problem that exists ONLY in our country. No other country has such an overwhelming problem with gun massacres.
Children who witness the massacre of their friends and teachers and staff will suffer for life. They will never be the same. They suffer far more than children who learn something about slavery or witness a trans person doing a drag show.
Wake up, Republicans! YOU are wrecking America! And this is an emergency! We are failing ourselves and our children! No one needs an AR-15 to hunt deer. No one needs an AR-15 to be safe. Republican voters!! you need to call your representatives!! Tell them you want them to pass reasonable gun laws to protect our children! You are the ones who have the greatest power to change the narrative.
Tennessee Gun Laws
- In 2021, Tennessee had the tenth-highest gun death rate in the country. The gun death rate in Tennessee was 56% higher than the national average gun death rate.
- On average, more than 1,350 people die from gun violence each year in Tennessee.
- In Giffords Law Center’s Annual Gun Law Scorecard, released in early 2021, Tennessee received a D minus for its gun safety laws, ranking 29th out of the 50 states.
- Since the release of that Scorecard, Tennessee has also passed new permitless carry legislation to further weaken its gun safety laws.
- Tennessee has only a small handful of gun safety laws on the books, including certain domestic violence protections and some weak child access prevention and anti-trafficking laws.
- However, Tennessee does not require background checks for gun sales by unlicensed sellers, has not enacted an ERPO law, places no restrictions on the sale of military-style assault rifles and LCMs, does not require a waiting period, and generally preempts local cities and counties from enacting their own gun safety ordinance.
- Since July 2021, TN law now also generally allows people to carry loaded handguns in public spaces without a permit (without any background check or training whatsoever). People may also carry unloaded long guns, provided they do not have ammunition for the weapon in their “immediate vicinity.”
This gunman, a former student at this school. got her weapons of war LEGALLY in Tennessee despite the fact that she was undergoing some kind of treatment for emotional disorder.
With the number of people in our country who are crazy, angry, fearful, deranged, sick and vengeful and the number of lethal weapons legally available for purchase how can anyone think that that combination doesn’t invite gun violence? It is only logical that if you put these two things together you will get massacres with AR-15s. Duh!
Here is more information about gun violence and how it is affecting our children and grandchildren.
- Gun violence is the leading cause of death for American children. On average, more than 2,000 children under age 18 are killed by guns each year.
- This shooting marks at least the 90th incident where a gun has been brandished or fired at a K-12 school or a bullet has hit school property this year. It is the second active shooter incident in a K-12 school.
- As of this shooting, more than 348,000 children have been present at a school during a school shooting.
- School shootings take a devastating toll on the mental health and wellbeing of survivors and the broader community.
- Children who experience school shootings are more likely to have severe symptoms of trauma, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
- Multiple studies have documented that exposure to violence in general is associated with lower grades, more absences, lower test scores, and lower rates of high school graduation.
- These declines can have implications for years to come. A recent analysis found that by the ages of 24 to 26, those who attended a school where a shooting occurred earned nearly 14% less than peers who attended the school before the shooting or who attended schools that did not experience shootings. The researchers estimate that this reduction in earnings amounts to a loss in lifetime income of $115,550 per shooting-exposed student.
- One study found a 21% increase in youth antidepressant use in a school shooting-exposed community in the two years following the shooting.
Pew Research Information on American Views About Guns
There are differences in gun ownership rates by political party affiliation, gender, geography and other factors. For instance, 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they personally own a gun, compared with 20% of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
Men are more likely than women to say they own a gun (39% vs. 22%). And 41% of adults living in rural areas report owning a firearm, compared with about 29% of those living in the suburbs and two-in-ten living in cities.
Federal data suggests that gun sales have risen in recent years, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a Gallup survey conducted in August 2019, gun owners were most likely to cite personal safety or protection as the reason they own a firearm. Considerably smaller shares gave other reasons, including hunting (40%), nonspecific recreation or sport (11%), that their gun was an antique or a family heirloom (6%) or that the gun was related to their line of work (5%).
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are far more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to see gun violence as a major problem (73% vs. 18%).
Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, views have shifted. Republicans are currently more likely to say gun laws should be less strict (27%) than stricter (20%). In 2019, by comparison, a larger share of Republicans favored stricter gun laws than less strict laws (31% vs. 20%). Both years, roughly half of Republicans said current gun laws were about right.
Today, Democrats and Democratic leaners (81%) say gun laws should be stricter, though this share has declined slightly since 2019 (down from 86%).
Why Can’t We Get Federal Legislation to Protect Our Children from Gun Violence?
Federal legislation that would codify common sense safety when it comes to guns has been rejected over and over again BY REPUBLICANS. That group of lawmakers is out of touch with the wishes of Americans. They are influenced by the gun lobby because they get their money from the gun lobby and they get their ideas about what Americans want from the rightwing which has infected the minds of their constituents with fear about everything from people coming in at the border to fear of their own government. And what do they prescribe as the antidote for this fear? Why guns, of course. And not just any guns. AR-15s. Which are weapons of war and have no place at all on the streets of America. Federal legislation, we are told, is off the table because of the gun lobby’s influence over GOP Representatives.
States Have the Power to Pass Legislation But Run Into Opposition in Enforcement
Led by Democrats, state legislators (in Michigan) last week passed measures that would require background checks on all firearm sales and mandate secure storage of firearms for gun owners with minor children at home. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign the gun safety measures into law.
The legislation has already been met with resistance in a number of counties with claims that 2nd Amendment rights are being violated.
The Bottom Line on Gun Safety Measures: Republicans! Call Your Representatives!! They will listen to you!
Until Republican voters believe that guns do not make them safer and insist that their representatives pass gun safety laws, we will be unable to get national legislation that will prevent the kind of gun violence we are seeing on a daily basis in this country. If the Dems had full control over the House, the Senate and White House our country could get reasonable national gun safety legislation. In states with Democratic governors and state houses we can get reasonable gun safety legislation. Across the board it’s Republicans who are standing in the way of progress here. That is why Republican lawmakers have blood on their hands.
Do we really have to wait until those kids who have survived the horrors of school shootings and been severely traumatized finally get into leadership positions in Washington DC and in state houses across America to put a stop to the power of the gun lobby? Waiting for that to happen means that many thousands more Americans will be killed, maimed, and traumatized by Republican inaction.
Republican voters, haven’t you had enough yet?! Call your legislators and demand that they pass gun safety legislation today! Your legislators will listen to you if you live in their district.