School Shootings

To the editor:

Last week’s shooting of two 14 year olds and two teachers and nine wounded in Georgia should remind voters that to vote Republican up and down the ballot this November is a vote to continue the mass shootings of our children and teachers at schools across the nation that makes death by gun the leading cause of death of our children in our country. When Republicans like Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz only offer their “thoughts and prayers” to the grieving families on one hand and on the other hand accept huge sums of money in the form of direct contributions, Super-PAC money, and the Dark Money to fund false political attack ads to deceive voters and make incumbent lawmakers cower to stay in power, Republican lawmakers at all levels of government are choosing death instead of life for our school children.

Like so many other needless school shootings, the rifle used by a 14-year-old was an AR-15 style rifle that can shoot multiple rounds in just a minute or two. The Sheriff of that Georgia County where the shooting took place publicly admitted that the FBI had warned the Sheriff well in advance of yesterday’s shooting of the potential threat of that 14 year old shooter but he went on to state that local law enforcement did not find “probable cause.” Well, probable cause is the standard for charging and arresting an offender and not “red flagging” this 14 year old and ensuring that he and his parents participate in professional mental health counseling which local law enforcement ignored the need for. So much for the Republican repeated false mantra that mass school shootings are unavoidable because it is a mental health problem and not a gun control problem.

It is way past time for the United States of America to stop its shameful and immoral standing as the only country in the world where frequent mass shootings of our school children (and there have been many in recent years in Texas from Santa Fe to Uvalde) are the new normal and where Republican lawmakers continue to obstruct universal background checks and the banning of the equivalent of weapons of war in the hands of violent and domestic offenders and minors and the mentally ill or dishonorably discharged and the red flag laws that would save countless lives in the U.S. every year especially at our schools.

Funding the presence of police on school campuses and training and arming our teachers to protect their students will never protect our children from the first two minutes of a school shooting where more than 100 rounds will be fired to disfigure an entire classroom of our children beyond recognition as was the case in Uvalde where GOP Governor Abbott was quick to hold a public media event to only praise local law enforcement.

So, if voters want to support the only true Party of Life that genuinely serves the entire spectrum of human life from birth until death, vote for the Democratic Party up and down the ticket in November.

John W. Mikus Houston