A p ril 4, 2012
W ^Jortlanb (Obstruer
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It’s Past Time to Protect Children, Not Guns
Our work to
build safe
communities
M arian W right E delman
T housands o f people across the
country have poured into the streets,
from N ew Y ork to Sanford, Fla., to
dem and ju stic e for T ray von M artin.
H u n d r e d s o f th o u s a n d s m o re
stepped up to protest online.
B ut m ore than a m onth after the
17-year-old w as stopped, stalked,
shot and killed w hile w alking hom e
from a convenience store, arm ed
only w ith a bag o f Skittles and a can
o f ic e d te a , h is k ille r, G e o rg e
Z im m erm an, has not been arrested.
T he C h ild ren ’s D efense F u n d ’s
new report, P rotect C hildren, N ot
G uns 2 012, is d ed ica te d to the
m em ory o f the F lorida teenager and
the thousands o f children killed by
guns in A m erica, including the 5,740
children killed in 2008 and 2009 a c
cording to the latest data from the
U.S. C enters for D isease C ontrol
and Prevention.
W here is the outrage over every
single one o f the thousands o f c h il
dren and teens killed by guns, too
m any by gun slinging A m ericans
unrestrained by com m on sense gun
control law s. F lo rid a’s “ Stand Y our
G round” law , also know n as the
“ shoot first, ask questions later”
law , is now under national scrutiny.
B ut w ill it and others be changed to
p rotect c h ild re n ra th e r th a n g u n .
by
ow ners and sellers?
A pril 16 m arks the
fifth anniversary o f
th e V irg in ia T e c h
m assacre w here 32
students and faculty
w ere k illed by a gun,
25 others w ere injured, and m any
m ore w ere traum atized. Each y ear
since then has seen gun victim s,
inclu d in g young children, teen ag
ers, you n g adults, a M em b er o f
C ongress, a federal ju d g e, and m any
m ore. D ays, w eeks, m onths and
years go by and little or nothing is
done to protect children instead o f
g u n s.
By any standards o f hum an and
m oral decency, children in A m erica
are u n d er assault, and by in tern a
tional standards, A m erica rem ains
the u n challenged w orld leader in
ch ild ren and teen gun deaths.
A nalysis o f the m ost recent data
from 23 high-incom e countries re
po rted that 87 p ercent o f all firearm
deaths o f children u n d er 15 w ere in
the U nited States. T he rate o f U .S.
gun h om icides for teens and young
adults 15 to 24 was 42.7 tim es higher
than the overall gun hom icide rate
for that sam e age group in the o th er
co u n tries.
W h y are c o m m o n -s e n s e gun
regulations so shockingly absent in
o ur country? E ven in the w ake o f the
T u cso n tragedy and the near-fatal
shooting o f one o f their ow n, C o n
gress failed to act.
C alls fo r banning high-volum e
aram u n itio n c lip s and tightening up
the federal background check sys
tem w ere ignored. O ur leaders once
again capitulated to the pow erful
gun lobby o v er the rights o f c h il
dren and citizens to life and safety.
In N ovem ber, the U.S. H ouse o f
R e p re se n ta tiv e s p assed the N a
tional R ight-to-C arry R eciprocity
A ct. If a sim ilar bill is passed by the
S enate and becom es law , a person
w ith a p erm it to carry a concealed
handgun in one state, a person like
G eorge Zim m erm an in Sanford, Fla.,
could carry that concealed w eapon
in another state even if it w as against
the second state’s law.
Proponents o f such dangerous
law s m aintain the fiction that guns
prom ote personal safety. It is long
past tim e to acknow ledge gun vio
lence as a hugely serious threat to
children, teens, and overall public
health and safety.
O u r leaders in W ashington, D .C.
are not alone in refusing to m ake
A m erica safer. Forty-tw o states have
adopted preem ption law s to ensure
state leg islatu res co n tro l o f gun
policy, im peding the ability o f cities
to d evelop local solutions to gun
violence in their ow n com m unities.
In 2011, K ansas, M ississippi and
U tah enacted law s allow ing co n
cealed w eapon p erm it holders to
carry loaded, co n cealed firearm s in
o r on the grounds o f elem entary and
secondary schools. W ith all eyes
on F lo rid a’s “ Stand Y our G ro u n d ”
law, few noticed a law passed last
year that, if upheld, threatens loss
o f a m edical License for d o cto rs w h o .
ask patients about w hether a gun is
in the hom e although it is not at all
unusual o r inappropriate for pedia
tricians p articularly to ask patients
and parents o f patients about p o s
sible safety hazards in the hom e
including guns.
W e have so m uch w ork to do to
build safe co m m unities fo r o u r ch il
dren. W e need leaders at all levels o f
gov ern m en t w ho w ill protect c h il
dren o v er guns. W e need a relen t
less, powerful citizens’ voice to break
the gun lo b b y ’s veto on com m on
sense gun policy.
O u r law s m ust control w ho can
obtain firearm s and close the gun
show loophole, require co nsum er
safety stan d a rd s and c h ild p ro o f
safety features fo r all guns, and
strengthen child access prevention
law s that ensure guns in the hom e
are stored safely and securely.
A nd all o f us m ust take action
and ask political candidates this fall
w hat steps they w ill take to p rotect
ch ild ren from guns. W e m ust re
m ove guns from o u r hom es w here
ch ild ren so often find them and put
them selves and others in h a rm ’s
w ay and com bat cultural g lo rifica
tion o f guns and violence.
As a nation, w e m ust asp ire and
act to becom e the w orld lead er in
p ro tectin g c h ild ren ag ain st guns
rather than leading the w orld in child
victim s o f guns. E very ch ild ’s life is
sacred and it is long past tim e that
w e protect it.
Marian Wright Edelman is Presi-
deatafthe Children's Defense F u n d ..
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