Stop gun violence

Letter to the editor:

I grew up in Chicago and remember the fire at Our Lady of Angels School (1958) where 90 children tragically died. A positive thing about that horrific event is it resulted in sweeping changes in national building fire safety codes. That was a disaster political leaders responded to, because children’s lives were at stake.

All 50 states make it illegal for vehicles to pass a stopped school bus with its lights flashing and stop arm out. That type of legislative action came about, because children’s lives were at stake.

Similarly, all states now require specific child safety seats in vehicles for infants and toddlers, because children’s lives were at stake.

It shows national action to improve safety and prevent unnecessary death can and does take place when children’s lives are at stake—except when it involves guns. Why?

Firearms are the leading cause of death for youth (ages 1-19), yet there is no national program to curb this. The Columbine school shooting happened 25 years ago and since then many other major tragedies [i.e. Sandy Hook (2013) and Uvalde (2022)] resulting in the loss of dozens of children’s lives. However, political action seems to be limited to “thoughts and prayers.”

There is a major political focus on abortion but shouldn’t the consideration of living, breathing children be more important or at least as important to our elected officials as the unborn? Ask candidates what they will do to stop school gun violence.

Ed Berschinski

Bainbridge Island