Letter: Reverse mindset on guns for a safer country

Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber,” died recently. He was embraced by the Republican Party after he confronted Barack Obama on the 2008 campaign trail over tax policy. Joe the Plumber was also a staunch defender of the right to bear arms. After the 2014 mass shooting that left six University of California, Santa Barbara, students dead, he wrote to the parents of one of the victims: “As harsh as this sounds — your dead kids don’t trump my constitutional rights.”

The sad reality is that U.S. children and teens are more likely to die from gun violence than car crashes, drug overdoses and cancer. According to a new analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gun-related deaths among children reached record levels in 2021, claiming 4,752 young lives, surpassing the record total seen during the first year of the pandemic.

Just days into the new school year, UNC Chapel Hill went into lockdown, with a graduate student accused of fatally shooting a professor. Luckily, a greater tragedy was averted, but a series of tweets between parents and students published by the campus newspaper underscore the emotional trauma of the event, even when young lives weren’t lost.

One of the most avoidable gun violence tragedies is unintentional shootings by young children. Entering Labor Day weekend, there were a series of tragic events that underscored the need for safe gun storage. A woman in Tennessee killed a 4-year-old girl while demonstrating gun safety. A 5-year-old in Gary, Ind., fatally shot himself after finding an unsecured gun inside a house. An 8-year-old accidentally shot and killed his older brother as their family was in the process of fleeing Hurricane Idalia.

Nearly every day in the U.S., a child gains access to a loaded firearm and unintentionally shoots themselves or another person, and the victims are often children themselves. Dr. Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon and researcher said, “The most likely reason that your child will die in this country is at the hands of a firearm. That’s not acceptable.”

Apparently, most Republican lawmakers find these incidents acceptable. They have not only voted against gun safety legislation and safe storage laws, but many red states like North Carolina have loosened their gun laws over the last few years, making it easier to obtain a firearm. Ted Budd, Chuck Edwards and their Republicans colleagues may not be as harsh in their political speech as Joe the Plumber, but their voting records mirror his blunt language, “Your dead kids don’t trump my constitutional rights.” We need to reverse this mindset for a safer, saner country for our children and grandchildren.

— John Owens
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense
Hendersonville