Needless gun violence on Tuesday ended the lives of 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. This comes only 10 days after 10 Black men and women were gunned down in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket.
These tragic and unnecessary stories have played out countless times over the past few decades. Places like Parkland, Fla; Newtown, Conn.; Aurora, Colo.; Las Vegas; and Columbine, Colo., have been essentially just another horrific statistic in America’s gun violence epidemic. Churches like Sutherland Springs, Texas, and Charleston, S.C.
In Kansas, too — three people were killed and 14 others injured in a series of shootings in Hesston and Newton in 2016. In 2014, three people were shot to death at two Jewish facilities in Overland Park.
It’s unfathomably heartbreaking.
Words can’t begin to express our frustration with this situation.
How many more schoolchildren and teachers have to die? How many grocery store shoppers, churchgoers and theater patrons?
We can prevent this from happening again. Politicians are choosing not to.
It’s pretty telling we have a nationwide problem when an NBA coach has more meaningful words to offer on the topic than those in Washington, D.C.
“There’s 50 senators, right now, who refuse to vote on HR 8, which is a background check rule that the House passed,” Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said during his news conference before a playoff game. “There’s a reason they won’t vote on it: to hold on to power.”
The Kansas delegation needs to call for or sponsor sensible gun control laws in the U.S.
Background checks before purchasing a weapon would make sense.
Waiting periods before making a gun purchase would make sense, too.
These policies are a common-sense approach to solving our nation’s problems with gun violence. Thoughts and prayers, while appreciated, aren’t going to cut it when gun violence could be prevented easily.
We’re not in favor of legislation that would take away all guns and ammunition from Kansans. That doesn’t make sense either.
Here in Kansas, we understand and appreciate the need for guns. Hunting is an important part of rural life and the Kansas economy.
That being said, we struggle to understand why a Kansan would legitimately need an assault weapon. Maybe the time has come that we as Americans take a hard look at why we want them in the first place. How sporting is it to kill a deer with an AR-15 anyway? It’s not.
Let’s pass gun legislation that protects Kansans.
