It has been five years since the horrific Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. In those five years, neither the state government, nor the federal government have taken any steps to make our schools safer.
According to “WA State Department of Health, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2013”:
“In 2013, approximately 24% of King County adults (371,000 people) reported firearms present in or around their homes. Among adults reporting presence of a firearm, an estimated 33% (123,000 people) stored them loaded and of those who keep their guns loaded 52% (64,000 people) stored them loaded AND unlocked.”
Using that data, 4 percent of our Mercer Island School District kids may have parents who are storing their guns loaded and unlocked. This is a disaster waiting to happen. I went to a march at Columbine High School in Colorado soon after the massacre in 1999 and that city looks no different from Mercer Island demographically. Our kids are in danger.
If you are upset by this state of affairs, please consider coming to the Commemorative Walk to to honor the lives of the 26 first-graders and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14, and to encourage civic evangelism to reduce the terrible ongoing toll of gun violence going forward.
It is a one mile walk at Green Lake (just east of the swimming pool across from Starbucks on east end of Green Lake) beginning at 5 p.m. and ending at 6:30 p.m. for children of all ages to commemorate the tragedy at Sandy Hook and to discuss what needs to be done to reduce the chances of future occurrences. The event will include music and refreshments.
The sponsor of the event is Washington Ceasefire. Maria Moscovici is a Washington Ceasefire Board member and a former resident of Newtown who lives on Mercer Island now. There is also a free bus that leaves the Mercer Island Park and Ride and 4:15 p.m. and returns around 7 p.m. Children of all ages are encouraged to attend.
This event is sponsored by Washington Ceasefire, Moms Demand Action and Grandmothers Against Gun Violence.
Bharat Shyam
Mercer Island
