We Can Do Better By Marian Wright Edelman | HuffPost | 06/14/2013 6:03 pm Excerpts: * Guns killed more preschoolers in one year than they did law-enforcement officers in the line of duty. Ask yourself if this is really what we as Americans meant by putting our children first? * American companies manufacture enough bullets each year to fire 31 rounds into every one of our citizens. How many more mass-murders will it take to get Congress to pass sensible gun regulation? * The number of children and teens killed by guns in 2010 was nearly five times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action that year in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shouldnt our legislators be as concerned about the wars at home as they are about the wars overseas? Anas love for singing was evident before she was even able to talk. In a musical family, her gift for melody, pitch, and rhythm stood out remarkably. And she never walked anywhere - her mode of transportation was dance. She danced from room to room and place to place. She danced to all the music she heard, whether in air or in her head. Ana loved her God, loved to read the Bible, and loved to sing and dance as acts of worship. These are the words six-year-old Ana Grace Marquez-Greenes parents released in a statement after she was killed by gun violence six months ago on December 14, 2012 in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Despite their courage and the courage of the 25 other families who lost children and loved ones that horrendous day, Congress has done nothing to protect children instead of guns. Nothing. We can do better. We must do better. Seven children and teens are killed by guns every day in America and a child or teen is injured by a gun almost every half hour. Every three days guns kill more than 20 children and teens, enough to fill a school classroom. We have likely had the equivalent of 67 Newtowns in the numbers of child deaths since December 14th. On January 29, 2013 a 15-year-old honor roll student chosen to march in President Obamas Inauguration parade was taking shelter from the rain under a canopy in a public park with a group of girl friends from school when she was shot and killed by a gun less than a mile from the Presidents Chicago home. Hadiya Pendletons courageous mother and father have spoken out and come to Congress to ask them to protect children, not guns. Yet nothing has changed. We can do better. Americas military and law-enforcement agencies have four million guns. Our citizens have 310 million guns. How many have been purchased without background checks? We do not know. We can do better. Alton Perry had been nicknamed the greeter at his preschool because of his eagerness to see visitors at his classroom door. Alton was particularly happy on February 26, 2013 when he brought mini-cupcakes to share with his class in honor of his second birthday. Later that day, his grandmother, who had a history of mental illness, shot and killed Alton and his six-month-old little brother before turning her husbands gun on herself. We can do better. We must do better for our childrens sake. Minnesota fourth-grader Devin Aryal loved soccer, Spiderman, school, and the color green. On February 11th a middle-aged man began shooting passing cars at random in St. Paul, killing nine-year-old Devin. Upon arresting the shooter, police found the man armed with bullets, loaded clips and two large knives. A judge ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation; it was unclear how he obtained the 9-mm handgun used in the shooting. Nine-year-old Shayla Shonneker loved playing outside with friends and riding her bike. Unbeknownst to her, in April an Oregon City military reserve member was practicing holstering and unholstering a loaded gun when it accidentally discharged 50 yards away. The bullet shot through the wall of the house, striking Shayla in the face and killing her. In May a five-year-old Kentucky boy was playing with his rifle when he accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old little sister, Caroline Sparks, with a single shot to the chest. The five-year-old little boy had gotten the weapon, a .22 caliber Crickett single shot rifle marketed to children, for his birthday. We can do better. Since 20 six- and seven-year-olds were mowed down with an AR-15semi-automatic rifle in December, more than 1,300 children and teens have likely been killed. The number of children and teens killed by guns in one year in America would fill 134 classrooms of 20students each. Its time for every parent, grandparent, faith and community leader to stand up to a do nothing Congress and say: Enough - do something now! The overwhelming majority of Americans agree we can and must do better. Polls show the vast majority of Americans, gun owners and non-gun owners, Republicans and Democrats support universal background checks as a first step to making America safer for our children and for all of us. We must protect children, not guns in our homes, in our communities. Together we can - and must - do better right now. So many child lives depend on it." read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria...-do-better_b_3444073.html?utm_hp_ref=politics ...... IMO: Since Congress did nothing to help future victims of lax gun laws filled with loopholes, and who have been corrupted by NRA money, many Americans have returned to Washington with no success. It is mainly the republicans that refuse to do anything to stop the senseless killings of children in our society, although there are members of both parties that fought any changes, but it is primarily the republicans that do not realize the national revolt that is going to happen in 2014 and again in 2016. The flagrant hypocrisy of the republican partys pro-life stance is silenced and gne forever with their stubborn resistance to stopping the murders of little children. We all recognize the power of the NRA in keeping lots of guns in lots of American hands and lots of money in Congresss pockets, and we are looking at the republican party/NRA as some kind of base hypocritical collective child-killing monster. But Edelman is correct...we WILL do better by voting every legislator, (regardless of their political affiliation) that voted down the gun-control reform bill right out of office on their collective azzes.
How many died in auto accidents? How about swimming pools? A HELLUVA LOT MORE than with guns. "we can do better". You and yours were already HANDED YOUR ASSES on this issue, but, you obviously CRAVE MORE PIMP SLAPPIN'. Why is the Left so masochistic?
Well they do pass laws to make cars safer. No one is saying lets abolish guns, lets just have some sensible gun laws. I'm not a gun fan, but i have friends that love to hunt and they should be able to buy rifles so they can hunt and i think everyone has the right to protect themselves and purchase hand guns. do people need 100 round magazines and automatic weapons to hunt or protect themselves? We got to compromise.
Not only will that NOT happen, but in states like Colorado, gun grabbing liberals like John Hickenlooper WILL be voted out.
Great logic, lol. So since more people drowned swimming we should not ban guns that shoot bullets. That's some serious conservative logic right there!!
Bad parents kill more children than guns... including most killed with guns. You don't have to (*)(*)(*)(*) up the constitution for that.
.... DO YOU OWN A GUN?...sounds like you may own about five of those peenis enlarging semi automatics that make your day safer. What about drive-by-shooters? What about shooters from overpasses on highways? You have a screwed-up concept of logic when you can equate driving a car and swimming at a pool with thousands of murders of little children by drive-by shooters, gang initiations, little kids playing on their front porches, and children huddle in classrooms getting murdered by some crazee with an assault weapon! Little children have a right to life too!!!
So since there are bad parents we shouldn't ban guns that are made to fire bullets at things? Great logic! Another winner!
.... See you in 2014...and again in 2016 to vote out those hypocritical right-to-lifers from Congress.
I think this is because most child deaths at the end of guns are accidents... as are most drownings... but not all. However drownings occur much more frequently.
Oh good grief....guns. Haven't we talked this to death? The Constitution guarantees us the right to keep and bear arms. Next topic? Oh, the drama....trampling the rights of law-abiding citizens "for the children". Puh-leeze. That strawman is done to death. Ban guns and we're helpless from criminals and the govt. The Left makes me wanna puke.
Why do you guys always leave out the part about being apart of a well-regulated militia? And the part that no one is looking to ban arms. But you guys can keep being drama queens.
Second hand smoke killed more innocent people last year than guns, RPGs, dynamite, flame throwers, hand grenades and crashing nascars combined, where is your outrage? Unless you are a hypocrite wouldn't you start with the more dangerous threats to society first? I realize guns, and plastic bottles are frightening to lefties but then there is reality. Also, less police officers died because they had guns to shoot back with. That has sometimes been known to be thorn in the side of criminals.
The good old strawman! Can't be a conservative with out them! - - - Updated - - - Including the freedom to take a man made weapon and lodge 3-11 bullets in to 20 innocent children. That doesn't sound fun.
The difference is you cannot justify killing people. But you can justify owning a gun. Sorry but you'll have to use different logic to make your case. (if that's even possible)
You can justify owning an AR-15 with 30 round clips? Please justify it to me. Are the Russians after you or something?
The threat of a tyrannical government. Criminals owning assault rifles, owning a one myself for proper self defense. These are justifiable reasons to own an assault rifle and it's not up for discussion. You cannot win this argument. Good day sir.
Lol, when was the last time you've seen someone with an AR-15 defend themselves against Government tyranny. I see more children and innocent people getting slaughtered by these guns then people fighting off the Govt gestapo. I'm glad your paranoia is justification for allowing psychos to own these man made weapons and kill innocent people. You sir have failed at your justification. End of discussion.
You have to prove that the government is incapable of tyranny in the future. Otherwise you lose this argument. End of discussion indeed.
I don't have to prove that at all. That's something you just created to push your paranoia. I have proof of what non-govt is doing with these weapons. Until you prove to me that you legitimately need these weapons to protect yourself against the Government, then I will have to believe that they should ban them. Since there is direct proof that non-Govt individuals are using them to harm real people. End of discussion. Please get a better argument than paranoia.
Yes you do. Because owning an assault rifle is justifiable to counter act government tyranny. In order for your argument to remain valid, which is opposition to the freedom to own an assault rifle, you would have to disprove government tyranny as a meaningful threat. But you cannot do that, because you can't predict the future. This is why you lose the argument. Period.
Your argument is one of my justifications for banning assault rifles. You guys clearly aren't mentally stable enough to own weapons. Just an argument from ignorance... common with conservatives.
Read it again. It's not the Bible, where you can morph the words to mean something that you want it to mean. I can assure you, the feeling is quite mutual. The right's entire platform stands on a foundation of straw men, so spare us the indignation. Do you really think a gun protects you from the government? LOL Anyhoo, Team Paranoia can have all the gunz they want, as far as this left-leaner is concerned. I would only ask that they barricade themselves inside their houses to make absolutely sure the gubmint and gang-bangers don't have their way with them. Can never be too safe when you base your entire life around creating irrational fears.
