I challenge any politician to look at a child-size coffin, like the 19 in Uvalde, Texas, or the one for Nyzireya London Moore, who was killed in March while celebrating her 12th birthday in Chicago, and shrug away the toll of guns in America.
You don’t have to want to do away with the Second Amendment to pass some reality based limits — starting with an age restriction on gun ownership.
People under 21 are not allowed to buy cigarettes or alcohol, and in some states drivers aren’t allowed to have unrestricted licenses until age 18. Those under 18 are not allowed to vote. There are age-of-consent laws for sexual activity and marriage and countless other restrictions laid upon children and teens that limit their ability to harm themselves or others or make decisions that have life-long impacts.
Background checks would not have prevented either the Uvalde school shooter or the Buffalo grocery-store shooter from obtaining their weapons, and when it comes to organized violence in cities, many of those guns used were obtained illegally. It is likely that there is no legislation that would truly end gun violence.
Even a directly unconstitutional ban on firearms across the United States — which would create crime and not curb it, as well as being a violation of our rights — would not put an end to gun violence any more than a ban on alcohol ended drinking during the Prohibition era.
But we can help protect our children, from each other and from themselves, by imposing the same kind of age restriction on gun purchases.
As a mother, as a citizen, as a resident of New York, which has an extremely high bar for gun purchasing, I would rather see restrictions by age than restrictions on gun ownership imposed on all law-abiding adults.
There are already rules that prevent 18-year-olds from buying handguns in many states; it could easily be extended to all firearms. Restricting gun purchasing by age isn’t just about the murdered children across our nation but to protect the young men who allow darkness to overtake them and become mass murderers.
Nineteen tiny coffins will make their way through Uvalde this week. I fear they won’t be the last, no matter what legislation is passed. Evil will always try to find a way, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying to fight it. Let’s start by making sure the next would-be mass murderer cannot legally buy a gun.
Libby Emmons is the editor-in-chief at The Post Millennial.