Moms, you can make this stop.

Your kids will never be safe, not as long as pretty much anyone can buy and own and use guns designed only to kill people.

The slaughter has become commonplace…so “normal” that one can now buy casket wraps specifically for kids. 

credit Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News

Guns were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 – more kids were shot and killed than died in car accidents.

This year alone 3,044 students aren’t going to graduate because they were shot to death. Thousands of parents and grandparents and neighbors and friends live with their loss – every minute of every day. 

The slaughter of little kids in Texas and elderly Black Americans in Buffalo tore away the comfortable numbness, replacing it with sadness beyond measure…yet somehow we pushed through. A colleague wrote this in an email; “I”m surprised at how much of business life just continued without comment.” That’s on us – each of us.

Here are two things that must be done.

1. Make background checks effective.
   In the decade since Sandy Hook, we have made zero progress in improving or expanding background checks on gun buyers.  The current process is clearly an abject failure, rendered toothless by “compromise” in Congress. The reality is:
   1. minimal information is required
   2. Background checks aren’t done at gun shows or for private sellers, so anyone can buy a gun in a private transaction.
   3. there are loopholes and gaps that enabled multiple mass killings perpetrated by individuals who never should have been allowed to buy a gun
   4. “The bar for denying someone on mental health grounds is very high, requiring that a person has been declared unsound or involuntarily confined to a psychiatric institution by a court or other authority.”
   5. If the FBI (the Federal entity responsible for background checks) can’t make a decision within 3 days, the firearm purchase is automatically allowed.
   6. Many states, the US military, and other data suppliers tasked with sending information to the FBI fail to keep their records complete and up to date, rendering the information they supply to the FBI questionable at best.
   7. What you can do – Please sign this petition, and learn more here.
2. Ban weapons designed to kill people.
   A good friend, former Green Beret and Vietnam combat veteran said this:As a nation we’ve got to come together and force our politicians to take up the challenge of eliminating the absurdly easy access by civilians to military weaponry and equipment. As someone who has owned guns for over 60 years and carried a shortened M-16 (actually called a CAR-15) for 19 months in combat, I’m saying that there is no reason for a non-military or law enforcement citizen to have a weapon that was intended only for killing other humans. What legitimate non-combat purpose does a 30 round stick magazine or 100 round drum magazine of 5.56mm ammunition have? Why are body armor and Kevlar military helmets permitted to be readily sold to the public with no questions about their intended use? How does one justify needing a 40 round magazine for a pistol? There truly must be a reckoning with our elected officials on both sides of the aisle to force the question of what their honest priorities are: the safety of our people or the continuance of their career funding by arms merchants, gun lobbies and a very small minority of highly vocal citizens who will fulfill their desires no matter what the cost to our society.
   What you can do: Support the Brady Plan.

What does this mean for you?

Take 5 minutes to help prevent a lifetime of grief. Support the Brady Plan