The National Health Law Program mourns the 19 children and two adults killed in Uvalde, Texas yesterday. We are sickened, outraged, and on the verge of despair to be in this situation, so soon after the murders in Buffalo and Laguna Woods. As advocates for the health rights of low-income people and families, we know that this country’s endemic violence and twisted gun culture poses a profound threat to individual and public health. As advocates for children, we deplore the political culture that elevates the rights of gun owners above the rights of children to live free from harm. In addition, NHeLP recognizes that there can be no reproductive justice – the right to have a child, not have a child, and parent the children we have in safe and healthy communities—without meaningful policy reforms to end the gun violence epidemic.
A decade after Sandy Hook, we continue to ask – what will it take to end these massacres? How can we force the change we need in our political system? A solution has eluded us, but we cannot give up or give in. NHeLP will continue to fight policies and resist the forces that allow inaction on gun control. And we urge those in power who recognize that gun violence is a problem to continue to fight for solutions.
