February 14, 2018, Valentine’s Day, a day meant for love, not hate, a 19 year old student, Nikolas Cruz, shot and killed 17 people and wounded many others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida.
It is a heartbreaking tragedy that we have experienced another school shooting. Cruz, a nineteen-year-old with a record of threats and violence, should not have been able to buy a gun, but in Florida he was able to buy one legally.
Students have organized a rally in Washington D.C. on March 24 called March For Our Lives to try demand safer gun laws. Far too many of our children have been killed and maimed by guns in school shootings, as the Republican Party refuses to act in the face of this carnage. I hope that the students can teach their parents to vote against the NRA and their hand-picked elected officials.
What can be done to prevent gun violence in our schools? Here are a few suggestions:
(1) Schools need to do a more comprehensive job of reaching out to mentally ill young people and provide them with treatment, both on and off campus.
(2) There needs to be more security guards on campus to stop violence before it occurs.
(3) Gun background checks need to be strengthened to go beyond simply denying guns to convicted criminals and to people who have been adjudicated mentally incompetent.
(4) We need to deny guns to people who have made threats of gun violence when those threats can be confirmed.
(5) All schools should have anonymous hot lines where students can report plans or other conversations by other students related to gun violence.
(6) Parents and guardians should be held accountable for keeping loaded and unlocked firearms in their homes where children can use those firearms to perpetrate acts of violence.
(7) Get Culver City students involved in campaigning for an end to gun violence in our schools.
I want my daughter and all children to be safe in school. The time has come to address the critical problem of gun violence in our schools. There will be a March For Our Lives rally on March 24 at 10:00 a.m. at Pershing Square in Los Angeles. My family will be there, and I hope that every member of our Club will join us. Please spread the word!