Former US Representative Gabby Giffords β93 in the United States. Having survived a 2011 assassination attempt that killed six people and wounded 13 others, Giffords writes that the root cause of recent mass shootings and attempts on former President Donald Trumpβs life is not heated rhetoric or security failures, but guns themselves.
βThe gun industry was granted broad legal immunity by Congress in 2005 through the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a major contributing factor to the soaring number of gun sales,β she writes. βWith the saturation of guns and loosening of gun laws came, unsurprisingly, a saturation of violence.β
Identifying as a political moderate at heart, Giffords argues that the value of moderation is its power to help opposing sides find common ground and act on solutions.
βWe have promised [students] safety, but how can we look them, or their parents, in the face and pretend that the answer is anything other than changing easy access to guns?β she says. βOur path forward requires us all β leaders, voters, Americans β to name the problem clearly and to take action.β