Dear friends of SNN,
The numbers are impossible to fathom. Nineteen Texas school children and two teachers dead in yet another devastating act of unspeakable violence, just 10 days after the mass shooting targeting Black people shopping for groceries in Buffalo.
The trauma is deep, and I hope that you know you can reach out to Special Needs Network for help finding support as we try to grapple with these acts.
These incidents understandably leave us feeling hopeless and helpless. But Special Needs Network has always stood at the forefront of efforts to reform policy on behalf of children and families. To that end, yesterday I sent a letter to Congress imploring our elected officials to take action on:
We know with certainty that enacting such laws will save lives. In fact, research published in the Journal of General Internal found that state gun laws requiring universal background checks for all gun sales resulted in homicide rates 15 to 18 percent lower than states without such laws. Data also confirms that magazine restrictions can potentially reduce mass shooting deaths by 11 percent to 15 percent, and reduce the total victims shot in these incidents by one quarter.
I invite you to join me in this effort and contact your Congressmen and Senators about this crisis. The US has seen at least 212 mass shootings this year. That’s 212 mass shootings in 144 days. Of those shootings, 27 took place in schools.
With more than one mass shooting per day taking place on an average day in this country, America’s children can’t wait another day.
Areva Martin
Founder and President