After the killing of children at Uvalde, Texas, parents had to line up and give DNA samples so their children’s bodies could be identified. That’s how much damage an assault rifle – a weapon of war – does to the human body.
Dr. Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician who has lived in Uvalde his entire life, testified in Congress recently about the horrific wounds he saw at the emergency room the day of the shooting. He went on to say: “Making sure our children are safe from guns, that’s the job of our politicians and leaders. In this case, you are the doctors and our country is the patient. We are lying on the operating table, riddled with bullets like the children of Robb Elementary and so many other schools. We are bleeding out, and you are not there. My oath as a doctor means that I signed up to save lives. I do my job, and I guess it turns out that I am here to plead, to beg, to please, please do yours.”
Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo, who survived the shooting in Uvalde, testified by video before Congress recently that she covered herself in another student’s blood to trick the shooter into thinking she was already dead. She said the shooter “told my teacher good night and shot her in the head.”
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, speaking on the U.S. House floor, said, “We have trained kids to hide under their tables. We have trained teachers to barricade their doors. We have trained schools to lock down their campuses. Now, are we going to train kids to cover themselves with their friend’s blood in order to survive?”
Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed in Uvalde, told Congress, “If given the opportunity, Lexi would have made a positive change in this world. She wanted to attend St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, on a softball scholarship. She wanted to major in math and go on to attend law school. That opportunity was taken from her. She was taken from us.”
Rubio concluded, “Somewhere out there, a mom is hearing our testimony and thinking to herself, ‘I can’t even imagine their pain,’ not knowing that our reality will one day be hers – unless we act now.”
In an email seeking support for the June 11 March For Our Lives, David Hogg, co-founder and board member of March For Our Lives, said, “NRA-backed political leaders have shown a callous disregard for our lives by refusing to take action to end gun violence. The result of their inaction has been preventable tragedies and innocent lives lost. We will not wait any longer. This time it will be different….We do not have to keep living this way. We need our political leaders on both sides of the aisle to work together to pass common-sense gun safety legislation. On June 11th we’ll send a message to them collectively: we demand action now.”
Gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in America today. It is also the number one cause of death for Black men and the number two cause of death for Black women and Latino men. This country has rates of gun death 20 times higher than other industrialized nations. About 110 people die every day from gun violence in the U.S. (This includes suicides, which account for a little over half of all gun-related deaths in the U.S.)
We are a country with 330 million people and 400 million guns. We have had over 200 mass shootings just so far this year, including 27 school shootings. How many more mass killings do there have to be before we do what’s necessary to stop it? How many more children have to die?
On June 8, the House approved the Protecting Our Kids Act, which would raise the age for buying an assault rifle from 18 to 21 as part of a package of gun reform measures that also would clamp down on gun trafficking, ban bump stocks and require safe storage of firearms. The measure passed the House 223-204.
The House voted June 9 224-202 to pass a federal “red flag” bill that would allow a federal court to pre-emptively take guns away from someone who poses a threat to themselves or others.
Nearly all Republicans in the House, plus a few Democrats, voted against both bills. Both bills are watered down compared to what most Americans want – a total federal ban on assault rifles for civilians – but even though they’re watered down, neither bill is expected to survive in the Senate. The Senate is working on its own “bipartisan compromise” legislation. Not many legislators have the courage to stand up to the powerful lobby that represents the multi-billion dollar gun industry.
Zeneta Everhart told a House committee about the wounds her son received to his neck, back and leg in the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. “As I clean his wounds, I can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. Shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life,” Everhart said. “Now, I want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children. This should not be your story — or mine.”
She added: “Lawmakers who continuously allow these mass shootings to continue by not passing stricter gun laws should be voted out.”
On March 15, 2019, a lone gunman killed 51 people and wounded 50 others at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. By April 11, 2019 – less than a month later – New Zealand’s Parliament had voted 119-1 to adopt a law that included a ban on all assault rifles, military-style semi-automatic guns, high-capacity magazines, and parts that can be used to build military-style semi-automatic weapons.
Contrast this with the U.S., where, as Rep. Omar pointed out, “it has been 23 years since Columbine. It has been 15 years since Virginia Tech, 10 years since Sandy Hook, 4 years since Parkland. We have offered prayer and thoughts for years with no real action.”
Omar said further, “We don’t have mental health issues more than any other country. What we do have here are politicians who lack the moral courage to stand up to the NRA. We have a society that is not willing to stand up to protect its citizens, especially its most vulnerable, which is our beautiful children. We have to be better than that…. The problem is guns. The problem is our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We have to have the courage to stand up to them and to stand up for our country.”
Change will come through a combination of replacing politicians who refuse to vote for change, and mass pressure in the streets to force the government to do what the people need done. If we fail at this, then those who have died will have died in vain. Support the young people and parents who are leading this fight for everyone’s lives.
Bob Lee is a professional journalist, writer and editor, and is co-editor of the People’s Tribune, serving as Managing Editor. He first started writing for and distributing the People’s Tribune in 1980, and joined the editorial board in 1987.
