rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/actions-speak-louder-than-guns?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-actions-speak-louder-than-guns' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> United Teachers of Dade https://actionnetwork.org/groups/united-teachers-of-dade https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/letters/photos/000/228/152/normal/Actions_Speak_Louder.png This week’s tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas is just the latest example of a problem that only exists in America. There is no other place where students and teachers are regularly asked to carry out school shooting drills and given chilling instructions on how to minimize the number of deaths when there is an attack. There are many elements to this problem and there is not one simple solution that would have prevented all of the school shootings since two 12th graders walked into Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 and murdered 12 students and one teacher. The number of school shootings and the number of dead since that day number in the hundreds, but even if we’re only counting students who witnessed the violence or were forced to hide or flee on those days, that number rises to over 311,000 (source: Washington Post). We are failing these children as a society by not acting in any meaningful way to attempt to address the causes of this violence. Clearly there are those like Texas Governor Greg Abbott who are already speaking in circles about this being the result of a mental health crisis. While true, this is an over-simplification that people use to avoid offering any real-world solutions, including sensible gun reform. There are many common-sense proposals that would minimize access to the type of weapons used by shooters in similar incidents including comprehensive background checks, age requirements, and a national database of individuals deemed as potential risks that would allow parents, school officials, and mental health professionals to act to intervene to avoid violence before warning signs become tragedies. We should not accept a reality that has schools teaching larger children to stand against doors to stop intruders from entering a classroom during a lockdown and we should not accept the current world where we are asking teachers to stand between gunmen and our children. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/actions-speak-louder-than-guns