Editorial and Opinion Writers Agree, the Latest School Shooting Shows Failure to Pass Stronger Gun Laws Leaves Students at Risk
National and state newspaper editorial and opinion writers know the price is too high to not protect American schoolchildren from gun violence
May 10, 2019 — In the wake of the shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado, editorial and opinion writers from publications across the country have voiced their support for stronger gun laws to stop gun violence from being a daily reality. These stories all point out our nation’s failure to simply pass stronger gun laws has resulted in the deaths of countless children in schools across the country.
PUBLICATIONS AND EDITORIAL WRITERS URGING FOR STRONGER GUN SAFETY LAWS
- Washington Post: Heroes risk their lives to stop mass shootings. Lawmakers don’t have the guts to pass gun reform. // Editorial Board “Rather than take proactive measures aimed at preventing shootings (such as New Zealand’s swift move to ban assault weapons), the United States operates on the seeming assumption that mass killing is inescapable, so citizens should learn how to best react. “Run, hide and fight” was the message blasted out to the UNC Charlotte campus when a gunman went on a rampage last month. “I heard a gunshot,” said Makai Dixon, a second-grader at STEM School Highlands Ranch who knew exactly what to listen for because of the drills and lockdowns that are now a core curriculum of U.S. schools.”
- Minnesota StarTribune: Another week, another school attack in America // Editorial Board “News editors make judgment calls on story placement based on many factors, including the uniqueness of the event and, in the case of shootings, on how many people were killed and/or injured. Page A12 is a reflection of how common the horror that unfolded in Colorado has become. And, in full disclosure, the Star Tribune Editorial Board discussed a half dozen or so other topics Wednesday morning before the charter school shooting came up, almost as an afterthought. After all, an editorial published just last week lamented a shooting at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Grade schools, high schools, universities. What more can be said? But that’s the problem, isn’t it? The more routine something becomes, the easier it is to accept.”
- New York Times: We Have 2 Dead Young Heroes. It’s Time to Stand Up to Guns. // Nicholas Kristof “Riley [Howell] was deservedly given a hero’s funeral, and presumably the same will happen with Kendrick. But their parents didn’t want martyrs; they wanted children and grandchildren. And it is appalling that we as a society have abandoned American kids so that they must die to save their classmates.”
- Houston Chronicle: Another school shooting and the same old heartbreak. Will we act? // Michael A. Lindenberger “Can’t we simply agree that the extraordinarily unusual availability of firearms in America is a contributing factor in the extraordinary high number of gun deaths? Not just mass shootings such as the heartbreaking examples in Colorado and North Carolina this month, but accidents, suicides and more? Once we recognize the two facts are related, can’t we agree that, at the very least, some especially risky people ought to have a more difficult time acquiring especially dangerous guns?”
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