Address the gun violence epidemic

Dear Editor,

As I dropped my children off for the first day of school today, among the thoughts and emotions swirling in my mind was this: they are so vulnerable. If it happened here, what would they do? I'm sure I wasn't the only one shedding a few tears.

Last week, yet another senseless tragedy unfolded, on the first day of school, this time in Minneapolis. Every year, parents in America bury hundreds of young children after shootings. Last year, 48,371 people were shot in the United States. 797 of them were young children. Thousands of them were teenagers. In the U.S., the leading cause of death for children and teenagers is guns.

There are more guns in the United States than people. Hundreds of thousands of guns used in crimes are purchased in states like Wisconsin without common sense gun safety laws like red flag laws and background check requirements for all gun sales. Unsurprisingly, we are experiencing a gun violence epidemic, and both our state legislature and Congress refuse to do anything meaningful to protect our kids and our communities from this very real threat.

Instead, the Trump administration is directing astronomical amounts of taxpayer money into rounding up immigrants based on the made-up idea that immigrants are to blame for crime. In fact, the data shows that as the immigrant population has risen, the crime rate has gone down. This cruel priority of the Trump administration isn't making us any safer. Enacting and enforcing meaningful gun safety legislation certainly would.

One small action you can take is to tell Congress to get its priorities straight and ban assault weapons. Go to https://momsdemandaction.org/act/

Sincerely,

Jennifer Williamson

Dodgeville, WI