We have too many guns in America; let’s sell some more.
I began my career as an educator in 1999, around the time of the Columbine massacre, where 12 students and one teacher were killed. Sandy Hook happened in 2012 with the murder of 26; Parkland happened in 2018, with 17 victims. Now the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Semiautomatic weapons were used in all of these bloody school shootings.
How is it possible that, despite massacre after massacre in America, an ill and evil being can still legally purchase an AR-15 semiautomatic assault weapon?
As a teacher in Middletown, New York, I drive to and from work on Route 17, and while listening with tears of sadness and rage to news reports about the school massacre in Uvalde, I am assaulted by a bright orange digital billboard advertisement of an upcoming gun show at the Orange County Fairgrounds. The site is directly acrossfrom a high school, and a couple of blocks from middle and elementary schools. I can't help but wonder and calculate what steps I would take to protect my students if weapons displayed and sold at that gun show find their way into our classrooms.
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I find most politicians spineless. Although I am heartened by the sincere efforts of a few, like Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who after word of our most recent massacre, asked the Senate, “What are we doing? ... I’m here on this floor to beg – to literally get down on my hands and knees – to beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely."
We must not shirk from addressing gun control legislation.
According to a 2018 report, there were 393.3 million guns in the hands of my fellow Americans. Then, according to the FBI, the gun-buying spree jumped 40% in 2020. We are the only country in the world with more civilian-owned guns than people, and we are the only country in the world with 200 mass shootings just this year. According to Education Week, there were 27 shootings with injuries and death that occurred in schools so far in 2022.
The slaughtering of our children is unacceptable to all of us, but thoughts and prayers won’t blot up children’s blood or heal broken hearts. The ones we elect to represent us must mitigate this ongoing avoidable crime spree.
We must insist on intensive background checks, require licensing and limit age requirements to at least 21. But most off, we must ban all sales of semiautomatic weapons.
“If I die in a school shooting leave my body on the steps of Congress,” a young girl once scrolled on a sign.
Middletown’s gun shows are not on the same scope of last weekend’s Houston NRA Convention, where 50,000 were registered to attend in a reeling and mourning state of Texas. Of course, Gov. Greg Abbott recently loosened gun laws there; you don’t even need a permit to carry.
But even in Orange County, New York, the NRA holds political sway. At least we have the power to vote these cowards, who have turned the Second Amendment into an arcane political excuse to profit off murder, out of office.
In the wake of the Parkland, Florida, shooting, where 14 high schoolers and three teachers were massacred by a lunatic with a legally purchased semiautomatic gun, I encouraged students to write letters about how they were impacted by the horrific news. One student wrote, "I feel that there is no way to control guns. There is always a way for someone to get access to a gun, whether it be through bribery, buying, borrowing or stealing. It is too easy to get a gun! What we need are stricter gun laws."
At least most of New York state requires license and registration of guns. Semiautomatic assault weapons are banned in New York but not by our neighboring states of Vermont or Pennsylvania.
Our Middletown schools are an educational refuge, and teachers are increasingly called upon to address our scholars’ social, medical and psychological needs in a compassionate manner. We must also take a stand to better protect our children locally and nationally by mitigating the sale and use of potentially murderous weapons, especially so close to our welcoming doors.
Judy Ronay is a teacher, photographer and writer in the Hudson Valley.
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Gun laws should be tightened; children need to feel safe in school
