We can take action on gun violence

We are mothers. We are grandmothers. We are aunts.

We are horrified by the massacre of 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde Tex., the 27th shooting in a school in 2022 as reported by National Public Radio. The May 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that in 2020, firearm-related injuries became the leading cause of death in children aged one to 19 in the United States. There have been more than 200 mass shootings already this year according to the Gun Violence Archives, an independent data collection and research group.

We are grieving. We are angry. And we repeatedly ask ourselves, “What can we do in Iowa and in the nation to improve gun safety and reduce gun violence?”

Ask candidates for local, state, and federal offices where they stand on common sense laws to reduce gun violence and improve gun safety. This includes universal background checks for gun sales, including at gun shows and for Internet sales, and red flag laws which allow police to temporarily take weapons from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

The U.S. House passed two bills expanding background checks for Internet and gun show purchases and lengthening the waiting period for gun buyers who are flagged by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. We are greatly disappointed that Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are among Republicans who have blocked the bills since 2019.

Let all candidates know you support, and expect them to support, efforts like these bills to limit access to guns by people who may be likely to misuse them. Then vote for candidates who support gun safety measures.

In addition, this fall Iowans should vote against a proposed constitutional amendment that would likely prevent any future gun safety laws from being passed. This extreme measure would force judges to apply a legal standard called “strict scrutiny” to “all restrictions” of the right to keep and bear arms.

We do not need this extreme standard, which goes beyond the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution and prevents all future elected officials from taking gun safety actions that they and their constituents want.

Use your voice and your vote in 2022 to halt escalating gun violence.

Bonnie Green, Terri Hale, Pam Kenyon, Mary Riche and Laura Sands are longtime Democratic activists in Central Iowa.