It was only after the senseless
massacre of 17 students and teachers in Lakeland, Florida, last week
that I learned that 17 other school shootings had occurred in just
the first seven weeks of 2018. How could I have not known that there
were so many? Has it become so common that we don't even notice?
Once again we hear public officials
offer condolences, thoughts and prayers, sincerely I'm sure, for the
victims and their families and their friends. Yet these expressions
of empathy are just platitudes without a commitment to act to prevent
these tragedies. Over and over and over again, even after the worst
mass killing last Fall in Las Vegas, no action at all on any federal
or state level has been taken to do anything about this cancer
affecting our country.
We're told that it's “too soon” to
talk about solutions. We're told that we “shouldn't politicize
tragedy.” So, what happens? Nothing!
The Second Amendment gives us the right
to bear arms. But with rights come responsibilities. What kinds of
arms are appropriate for private ownership? In this gun-worshipping
culture we have, it seems that no one at the federal or state level
is willing to take the responsibility to keep weapons designed for
military use in war out of the public domain. The AR-15, the weapon
of choice for mass murder in the U.S., is one such weapon.
Since the massacre at the Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, CT, in 2012 more than 400 people have
been shot in more than 200 school shootings. Since that time more
than 150,000 people lost their lives in the U.S. due to gun violence.
(Google “gun violence in the U.S.”) Since Sandy Hook, 14
bills were introduced in the Vermont legislature to set reasonable
regulations for firearms. With the least restrictive gun laws in the
country, only minor changes have been made in the last six years in
Vermont. Last year the House passed a Domestic Violence bill that
would allow police to temporarily confiscate guns from a household
when responding to a domestic violence incident. This would offer
some protection for domestic violence victims during a critical
period in a bad situation. That bill sits in the Senate waiting for
action. As usual, a very vocal minority of gun owners turned out in
force at a Senate hearing to oppose it.
I am willing to acknowledge that we
have a lower level of gun violence in Vermont than elsewhere.
However, looking at the characteristics of mass shootings, it can
happen here. It's only a matter of time. We are fortunate that a
potential school shooting in Vermont was thwarted just days ago due
to swift law enforcement action as a result of a report by a
concerned citizen of the threat seen on social media.
It's time we took action in Vermont on
the bills currently under consideration to protect domestic violence
victims (H.422), to ban “bump stocks” (H.876), and to require
background checks for the sale or transfer of firearms (H.151, S.6).
This will only happen, however, if good people demand it by calling
their legislators in the House and Senate with the same sense of
purpose as those who oppose regulation. Failure to speak up equals
complicity when a similar tragedy occurs in the future on Vermont
soil.
