Guns Are Killing Our Children We Must Act

Five years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, we said the same words: “Never again.” Twenty-six children. Six educators. A whole community shattered.
And yet… we didn’t do enough. Because since Sandy Hook, there have been hundreds of school shootings dozens killed. But that is only part of the tally. Because outside school walls the carnage continues.
In 2022 alone, firearms overtook car crashes as the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S..
Bloomberg School of Public Health
This is not about politics. This is about children we send to school each morning expecting they’ll come home.
Why the Second Amendment Argument Isn’t Enough
Our Constitution protects “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” But laws were written for a different era muskets, militias, a frontier world. They were not crafted for AR-style weapons in a school corridor.
The problem isn’t only people who kill.
It’s the weapons they use. A person angry or mentally unstable with a handgun is tragic. With a rapid-fire rifle? Catastrophe. We cannot ignore how lethal the tools have become tools easily purchased, lightly regulated.
The Grim Numbers
In 2022, children ages 1-17 had a gun-death rate that more than doubled since 2013.
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Guns kill more American children than many other causes of death.
Everytown Research & Policy
Nearly 4,300 children and teens (ages 0-19) are killed by firearms each year, and more than 17,000 are wounded that’s roughly 60 young people a day.
Everytown Research & Policy

These are not statistics. They are lives small hands, big dreams, futures erased.
What We Could Do Starting Now
We already know many of the policies that could make a difference. It’s not about inventing new ideas. It’s about mustering the courage to implement them.
Ban assault-style weapons.
Why does any civilian need a firearm designed for mass devastation? We should answer that question plainly.
Stronger background checks, waiting periods, mental-health assessments.
Close the gun-show loophole. Track trafficking. Enforce safe-storage laws. These aren’t buzzwords they’re life-savers.
Make safe storage a legal requirement.
Trigger locks. Gun safes. Ammunition separate from the weapon. Too many young children find unlocked, loaded guns in their homes.
Expand mental-health services with urgency.
Gun violence isn’t only “someone with a gun.” Often it’s “someone who felt invisible, unsupported, broken.” Care early is prevention.
Speak up when someone shows warning signs.
Many shooters bragged online, posted threats, or fretted openly. We must stop pretending those are private conversations. We must intervene. And we must give police and families tools not just jargon to act.
We Can’t Wait Any Longer

Every time we say “never again” and then do nothing, we betray another group of children. We look at the headlines and nod, and then whisper prayers and move on. That’s not enough.
If you want hope:
Look at the states where safe-storage laws and assault-weapon bans are already associated with fewer child gun deaths.
The Guardian
This is a public-health emergency. The Vivek Murthy Surgeon General declared it so: gun violence is a national crisis.
TIME
Let’s Choose Lives Over Guns
For far too long, guns have claimed ground.
Today, let us reclaim it for children.
Not tomorrow.
Not later.
Today.
Our children must matter more to us than our arguments about firearms.
Their laughter, their futures, their presence in the world that must matter more