“If eight children were dying every day from a mysterious virus, our country would mobilize to put a stop to it. Gun violence is an epidemic that is taking our children’s lives in our schools, on our streets, and in our neighborhoods. As with other epidemics, we must do everything we can to make a difference for people through prevention and treatment.”
– Elizabeth Warren
Here’s a picture book on gun violence:
After: A Survivor’s Story by Hallee Adelman, illustrated by Patrick Corrigan
A young survivor of gun violence at her school deals with the aftermath of her trauma. By joining together with others, she finds that she is stronger than she realized. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
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Love Elizabeth Warren’s quote. Why, why aren’t the decision makers listening?
Hi Stacey,
I know what you mean! It feels like the politicians are all taking Gun Money.
I agree. We desperately need to fix this. Shared this video. Hooray for cartoonists lending the cause a voice!
Thanks for sharing MaryAnne!
Love Elizabeth Warren! She makes such a compelling point. Will share too!
Thanks Ann!
I am totally with Elizabeth Warren and have signed many of her petitions. She is one of the few politicians willing to take on the special interest groups. Last week I saw another clip from these cartoonists. Maybe if enough well known people start lobbying for the welfare of the rest of us, something will get done.
Hi Barbara,
How sad that so few politicians are willing to take on special interest groups! I hope something will get done. Yes, I’m with you. Let’s all lobby for it!
Thanks for posting this, Mia!
It’s so powerful and important and Elizabeth Warren has it right–it is an epidemic! I’ll be passing it on to all my friends!
~Maria
Thanks Maria! I posted to Pinterest where it was not necessarily so enthusiastically received by some. Oh well. It’s a controversial topic!
Shared on Facebook…found via Pinterest. What a sensible woman Elizabeth Warren is…a few more in positions of authority with her common sense would just be wonderful!!
Thanks so much Jennie! I feel lucky to have Elizabeth Warren as my senator! She’s one of a just a few politicians willing to take on special interest groups! Thank goodness!
Unfortunately the facts do not support the concern stated here. There is no gun violence epidemic in the US. Gun violence has declined by more than 60% since the mid 1990s. The areas of the country with the highest incidents of gun violence are those designated “gun free” zones. These include Washington, DC and Chicago where gun related deaths are the highest in the country.
Mass killings like the terrible incident in Newtown are the work of mentally ill people. There are no gun laws on the books nor any that were proposed that would have prevented that incident. Sadly politicians like Elizabeth Warren – and the President – use these horrible events to push their cause.
Another inconvenient fact is that as the ownership of guns has increased, gun deaths have decreased. If you are a crazed individual with killing on your mind, where are you going to go? To a gun free zone (like a school) or a place where there might be people with a gun?
What has stopped these people on a killing spree? Someone with a gun!
I’m a mother, grandmother, teacher, youth volunteer, and tutor. I do not want children or anyone else to be hurt or killed. However, I also know that someone who is intent on doing harm to others will find a way. There are so many gun laws on the books, yet people who want to procure one will find a way.
I’ve never owned a gun myself; however, my husband did and my sons do. They are responsible, keep them locked when not in use, and know how and when to use them.
Perhaps we should insist that the current laws be enforced rather than passing new ones that will do little but pad certain political careers.
Hi Rkpsmith,
Did you know that there was a mentally ill person in China who attacked children on the very same day as the Newtown tragedy? Guess how many kids died? Zero. The reason? There were no guns. No guns allowed in China. The man used a knife and the results were very different.
Can you imagine if no one had guns? This is exactly what they did in England after a tragedy like Newtown. They got rid of all the guns. And their gun violence since this happened? Guess? Yes, markedly decreased.
Yes, you can’t stop mentally ill people from committing deadly crimes. There is no way to predict and no one can force the mentally ill to take treatment and stay medicated. But you can prevent the weapons of destruction. What if everyone were allowed to have nuclear weapons? I mean everyone who wanted one? Is that ok? Why not? And why is this different from guns? It’s just a stronger form of violent technology.
There will always be exceptions to everything. Sadly, using isolated examples of tragedy to claim a broad and larger problem solves nothing.
I’ll take American guns – and freedom – over no guns and the Chinese lack of freedom any day. America was founded on freedom and one of those is the freedom to own a gun.
As I noted previously, Chicago and Washington DC have the strictest gun laws in the country and the highest rate of gun related deaths. Criminals do not respect the law.
I also try to keep my comments grounded in fact. Asking if everyone should be allowed to own a nuclear weapon is not even a question worthy of a reply. I also try to be realistic. Taking guns away from all Americans is an unrealistic.
Wouldn’t it be better to address the problems in a realistic manner?
Hi RKPSmith,
What abou the example of England getting rid of guns after a Newtown-like incident and now not having these incidents anymore? That’s pretty realistic, isn’t it?
Hi RKPSmith,
I suspect that Chicago and DC have highest related gun deaths because people are getting their guns from out of state that is near by. What about Virginia or Maryland? They have less strict gun laws perhaps because DC itself is a tiny geographic area. Same for the city of Chicago … can you buy guns outside of Chicago easily? You have to make the gun laws tougher everywhere. One small isolated area isn’t going to work because it’s easy to hop into a car, cross a border to another state, buy the weapon and drive back. Right?
We had liquor laws in Massachusetts and they were repealed because it’s so easy to drive to New Hampshire on Sundays.
Hi RKPSmith,
For my nuclear weapon example, it was meant to be an analogy for gun weapons. A pistol is very different from an automated assualt weapon and special bullets meant to penetrate bullet proof vests and explode within the body. Why should both be equally available?
As I said before, I prefer to deal with reality. Current gun ownership in the United Kingdom is less than one gun per 100 people. In the US gun ownership per 100 people is 101 guns.(look it up!) Again since gun ownership is guaranteed by the US Constitution, we would be much better to address the root causes of gun and other violence.
The reality is that gun ownership is not going to be eliminated in the US. If it were even tried, I suspect there would be a revolution. The reasons the Founders put this in the Bill of Rights was to make certain the government did not get too overbearing. The people have a right to defend themselves. The people who came here did it to get away from those who would take away their personal rights. One of those rights is self protection.
It is the people who do not respect the law and the rights of others who break the laws. And because we are not “allowed” to profile trouble makers for fear of offending someone, they flourish. Better we address the trouble makers than further impugn law abiding citizens.
I am tired of being penalized because the government – whether local, state or national – cannot enforce laws. I have chronic sinusitis and must take a decongestant daily. Now in order to do that I have to go to the doctor and get a prescription (and pay for the visit) in order to be able to purchase enough medication to take one pill daily.
Why!? Because the drug dealers are better at their trade than the police are. So I am inconvenienced. I am a law abiding citizen, but that does not account for anything. The lawless are running the show.
And as long as the current laws are not enforced, we will continue to have Chicagos and inconvenienced sinus sufferers.
Hi RPKsmith,
I looked up gun ownership in the US:
The United States 88.8/100 people have guns. We are ranked #1 in terms of gun ownership out of the entire world.
In Japan, gun violence is unheard of. The stat is Japan .6/100 people have gund. Japan is ranked 164th in gun ownership out of the entire world.
In terms of gun related deaths, Japan had a rate of 0.07 which is to say 7 die from gun violence out of 100,000 people. The United States is 9.80 which is 140 times the rate of gun violence compared to Japan.
Does racial profiling work? They did that during WWII when Japanese Americans were put into concentration camps for living on the West Coast. While there were Japanese American spies in Hawaii during WWII at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Americans who were deported were never proven to be spies. And Japanese Americans in Hawaii were excluded from deportation.
I don’t think gun ownership will be eliminated in the U.S. either. The special interest groups are just too powerful. But I do think there should be limits on access to assault weapons that are clearly not used for self defense.
As for gun ownership and self defense, I’m not even sure if stats show that owning a gun makes you and your family safer. I think the stats show that gun related deaths happen as the result of gun ownership.
I’m sorry that you suffer from sinusitis. It sounds like your medication is prescription based? In other countries like France, you would not have to visit the doctor to get medication such as this. Yes, I agree that our laws do not always make sense but it does seem like they are impossible to change which is frustrating for both of us, but for different reasons.