From Buffalo to Uvalde, to daily shootings and suicides, we are witnessing the violent country that the gun lobby created and our lawmakers have enabled. We hear “thoughts and prayers” over and over again, and this does not save lives and it sure does not change the laws.
Our kids should be safe in school, we should be safe in a grocery store, movie theaters, religious services, walking down the street and safe sitting in or out of our homes. The Senate must take action now because there is no safe place to be in the United States.
The Senate has failed to do their jobs for too many decades. What more will it take to convince them to do something to save lives? How many more children have to die? How many more mothers, fathers, teachers, churchgoers, and other lives must be taken for our leaders to do something? Any of the senators who are held hostage to the gun lobby are choosing carnage and gun industry profits over the precious lives of our children.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S and this is a crisis only happens here. Parents in other western civilized nations kiss their kids goodbye when they head off to school and do not have to give it a second thought.
Why? Because no other country has been held hostage by a gun industry that is getting rich off the deaths of our children.
The response from lawmakers backed by the gun lobby is that we need more guns. Then why are we not safest country in the world since we have the most guns? There were armed professionals at both the school in Uvalde and the grocery store in Buffalo and children and adults were still shot and killed.
We are at a crisis point. It is time for the Senate to do their job and represent the majority of voters who agree that there needs to be a stronger federal background check law for every gun sale. The H.R. 8 bill has passed in the House and we have been waiting too long for the Senate to pass the bill. We need to contact our representatives and demand that something needs to be done.
Continuing to be quiet will allow the shootings to continue. Our lives should have more value than guns and money in God Bless America.
Tanja Radakovich-Murray, LaGrange Park
