How much longer is this country going to allow guns to be the leading cause of the deaths of children and teens (New England Journal of Medicine).
The Uvalde, Texas, school shooting was preceded by the school shooting of Newtown, Conn., 10 years ago. The common factor in these shootings, and many others, is easy access to firearms.
In 1996 there was a school shooting at the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland where 16 5- and 6-year-old children and their teacher were killed. It was Britain’s worse and last school shooting. The British government took decisive action. Parliament passed laws banning private ownership of most handguns.
These guns laws appear to be working. Cause and effect are always tricky to measure, but in the 26 years since Dunblane, there have been no school shootings in the U.K. and there has been just one mass shooting in general since then, in 2010.
Compare that to 27 school shootings and 213 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2022 — and we are just halfway through the year!
Congress passed the gun violence act but that is not enough. There is no reason for people to have assault weapons. If people do not have guns then people cannot be shot. Simple enough!
Dorothy DAlessandro
Waterville
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