By Karen Kay Remus
How do we defeat the mass shooting terrorism that is rampant in the United States?
The first step is to ban assault weapons. They were banned, from 1994 to 2004. There is no valid reason for civilians to own them.
Since the ban expired, there have been over 32 mass shootings in the United States. This figure is from 2013. Unfortunately, research on shooting deaths is limited, because the Centers for Disease Control, the agency that should be compiling and studying this data in order to help erradicate this deadly epidemic, is not. See: why the CDC is not researching gun violence
The point is, one mass shooting is too many, and the problem is escalating.
In response to last week's Florida school shooting, Trump has advocated "arming teachers." Having taught at a high school, I can tell you that this is a very bad idea. Anyone who has ever taught knows why this is true. Not only would it lead to even more shooting deaths, but it would do nothing to stop massacres like the Las Vegas Concert Shooting or the Aurora Colorado Theater Shooting.
The only way to end mass shooting terrorism is to heed the warning signs of potential shooters and keep guns out of their hands. We can accomplish this by banning assault weapons, by letting the CDC study and help eliminate this epidemic, and by passing sensible gun legislation.
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