Brunswick Beacon, 04.06.23
Three nine-year-olds were gunned down at a Nashville elementary school last week, in America’s 129th mass shooting in just 86 days. Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children. Meanwhile, Republican politicians pretend the biggest threat to kids is books instead of bullets.
Rep. David Rouzer’s latest email brags about passing what Republicans cynically label a Parents Bill of Rights “to protect a parent’s right to be involved in their child’s education.” Cynical, because Rouzer knows parents already have that right. Brunswick County parents elect our five-member school board every four years. If parents don’t like the job they’re doing, parents can replace them. In fact, parents can attend and participate in local School Board meetings every month. Parents have far more influence over local schools than over distant congressmen like Rouzer in Washington.
Cynical, too, because politicians like Rouzer fan a phony fear of books to distract parents from Republicans’ refusal to keep real bullets from blowing our babies apart in schools.
Seventy-one percent of Americans support stricter gun safety laws because they understand what Republican politicians ignore: states with the strongest gun safety laws have the lowest rates of gun violence. Instead, Republican politicians insist on loosening gun laws and endangering America’s children.
Rouzer voted against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which strengthened background checks, improved school security, and funded mental health.
NC’s Republican-controlled legislature just scrapped a long-standing requirement that handgun buyers obtain a permit from their county sheriff. They rejected Democrats’ proposed amendments mandating universal background checks, eliminating the background check loophole for private sales, requiring people to keep their guns locked up if they live with children or people banned from carrying firearms, and creating a "red flag" system to keep weapons from people courts determine to be dangerous.
Demand that Republican politicians stop un-American book bans and start protecting babies instead of bullets!
Linda McConnell Baker
Leland