At this point, it’s hard to keep track of the number of times we’ve seen the “Breaking News” banners reporting that yet another man with a gun opened fire on students and teachers. Starting with Columbine, school shootings have gone from a monstrous anomaly to tragic and expected aspects of the American experience.
This time, the shooting was in Santa Fe, Texas, and it took the lives of eight students and two teachers. We are still just days removed from this tragedy, but we all know how it will play out: We mourn and grieve for the young people who will never get to grow up. News outlets simultaneously vilify and glorify the man who did this, and gradually partisan politics take over until the next mass shooting stops us in our tracks once more.
We must break this deadly cycle.
There is a reason that America has more mass shootings than any other country in the world, and I refuse to believe it is because Americans are innately more troubled, angrier, or more prone to violence than others.
There are more mass shootings in America than any other country because there are more guns in America than any other country — it’s not complicated.
In the months since the Parkland shooting in February, it seemed possible that we might actually be able to do something to slow or even stop this epidemic of gun violence. I was eager to come up with creative ways to help limit guns on school grounds without violating any Second Amendment rights. But when I proposed an amendment that would allow local school districts the ability to decide for themselves whether on not to ban guns from their campuses (a right they do not currently have), the Republican majority voted on party lines against this legislation.
My amendment wasn’t about limiting the purchase of guns or restricting someone’s right to own a gun. It was quite reasonable and moderate. It was about school safety, something that Gov. Chris Sununu said he supported just one day after the Parkland shooting in his State of the State address. But as it turns out, Sununu and his Republican colleagues have replaced “sending thoughts and prayers” with “efforts to make schools safer” as their latest trite phrase of choice.
Everyone wants these shootings to end, but what has been made astoundingly clear in the past months is that only Democrats are willing to stand up to the National Rifle Association and take action to end school shootings.
Sununu and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate had their chance to enact any type of legislation they thought would help stop these shootings, but they did nothing. Come November, let’s remember this inaction and elect those who will work tirelessly to end this cycle of gun violence once and for all.
State Sen. Martha Hennessey, of Hanover, is a former teacher. She represents District 5.