By Laura Lombard
When I was in middle and high school, my generation of students experienced the Jonesboro and Columbine shootings. At the time, we were worried about copycat shooters and members of the “Trenchcoat Mafia” emerging at our schools. However, we did not foresee the epidemic of shootings at elementary, middle, and high schools and colleges that would be the story of the next 20years. Maybe if we had known, we would have acted like our students are today and demanded our leaders do something then.
A little over a week ago, my campaign hosted a panel and community discussion about preventing school shootings in America. Since then we have had yet another shooting in a Maryland high school and nationwide Marches for Our Lives protesting gun violence. Our panel included a diverse group of local leaders including the police chief of a school district, several schoolboard members, teachers, and legislators, but the one panelist who stood out was a high school student from Newton named Nathan who also helped organize Wichita’s March.
Nathan spoke about how he worried about his younger brother more than himself. He worried there might come a day when his little brother might not return home safely from school. Nathan should be concerned with preparing for a test or finding a date for the next high school dance, not whether he, his peers, or younger brother will be gunned down at school.
But this is the America in which we now live. Parents are considering equipping their children with Kevlar backpacks as if they're entering a war zone. Political leaders have touted arming our teachers, coming up with funds for gun training but not increasing teacher pay or lowering class sizes. Schools have built “safe rooms” inside their classrooms where students can hide from bullets shot by their fellow classmate.
This cannot be the American any of us want. And these actions do not address the core issues causing school shootings in the first place.
Thirty-three years ago, James Kearbey, a student at Goddard High School, entered the school with a semiautomatic rifle and pistol, killing the principal and wounding three others. Goddard didn't just continue business as usual after the shooting though. They learned lessons and took actions to prevent this from happening again. They established the Goddard School District Police Department, increased school counseling, and created a more efficient system to report potentially troubled students. If Goddard took action after their own school shooting thirty years ago, why can't our own local, state, and national leaders do so now?
Here is one reason: Since 1996, there has been a federal law preventing research into gun violence in the U.S. called the Dickey Amendment. Why? Why were lawmakers afraid of research? Fear the results of research might show a story that goes against their political motives? This past week, under pressure by the public, Congress finally added language to a spending bill allowing the Center for Disease Control to perform this much-needed research. However, GOP leadership is still refusing to repeal the Dickey Amendment itself, and researchers are skeptical they will receive the needed funding to move forward with effective research. For the past twenty years, GOP leaders have been political cowards bought and paid for by powerful special interest groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA), and their actions will need to speak louder than these words to prove otherwise.
Originally, the NRA was a group focused on educating and training while also protecting second amendment rights. They found a healthy balance and worked with the government on gun safety legislation. In the late 1970's, however, the organization changed course, taking the hardline seen today. They turned from education and training to buying politicians and strong-arming them into voting against any gun control legislation that might harm gun manufacturers’ bottom lines, including allowing for gun sales without background checks at gun shows.
Politicians in D.C. became more concerned about being re-elected than they are about the countless families, students, and constituents that want reform. These are the same politicians who smile broadly holding a box of letters from wealthy donors happy they received a tax break while not even entertaining a discussion with a victim of gun violence. These are the same politicians that run pro-gun campaign ads showing themselves shooting semi-automatic weapons or try to auction off anAR-15 the week after students are gunned down by one.
I have listened to students, parents, teachers, the constituents that I will serve and their response echoes in my conversations regarding this subject.
“Enough is enough. It is past time for action on gun safety.”
The issue of school shootings is not entirely about guns, however. Assault rifles are the choice tool utilized by mass killers but not the reason(s) our young men choose to commit these horrendous crimes. We must get to the heart of why so many of our young men feel such rage toward their peers, teachers, and society at large. Is it a bullying issue? Is it mental illness or personality disorders? Is it social isolation? How do we identify and help at-risk youth before they get to the point of shooting up our schools?
Here is what we need to do: First, we agree that our children’s safety, sense of security, and education need to be our top priorities. They are our future. Next, we should perform the research needed to understand both gun violence in our country and the causes behind our young men wanting to kill their peers. We should shore up existing loopholes and ensure background checks at trade shows. We should ban assault weapons, like the AR-15s, that were designed for military use and have the capacity to kill many people in seconds –and are the chosen weapon in mass shootings for that reason. We should pushback when leaders advocate for our already overextended and underpaid schoolteachers become armed security guards. We need to invest in our teachers and in lowering classroom sizes, so students get the time and attention needed to succeed. We should increase funding for school counselors and resources to identify potential threats more efficiently and effectively. These are steps we can take that get the core of the problem – not reactions that just accept school shootings as the new normal.
What we simply cannot afford to do is nothing. Our children deserve our action. We deserve action.
Laura Lombard is a Democratic candidate for the 4th District Congressional race.
A shorter version of this article was published in the Wichita Eagle: www.kansas.com/...
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