Children participate in a March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Round Rock, Texas. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
When I started teaching kindergarten in 1985, I would never have fathomed that I’d be doing active shooter drills with my students.
I never would have fathomed that decades later, 20 six- and seven-year-olds and six adult staff would be shot and killed at an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Two years later, a high school shooting in Washington state. Then Parkland, Florida. Santa Fe. Uvalde. Nashville. By the time I retired in 2020, what was once unfathomable had become commonplace.
Now that I’m retired I provide child care for my three grandchildren. When I think of them going to school in a few years, I can’t help but worry about what could happen to them at school. Kindergarteners shouldn’t have to worry about dying. Teachers shouldn’t have to wonder if they will have to become a human shield for their students. Parents shouldn’t have to send their children off to school with the fear it could be the last time they see them.
So, in between my days watching grandchildren, I decided to do something about it.
Three weeks ago I joined five other Mainers and the Maine Gun Safety Coalition in petitioning to put the Safe Schools, Safe Communities initiative on the ballot. Mainers deserve to live free from gun violence, and together we can help keep our families and our communities safer.
The Safe Schools, Safe Communities initiative will create an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) law in Maine, joining 21 other states that already have this effective and sensible tool to prevent gun violence. Commonly known as “red flag laws,” ERPOs allow family members to directly petition a court when a loved one is in crisis and at risk of harming themselves or others, and after due process if they are determined to pose a threat to themselves or the community a judge can temporarily limit their access to deadly weapons.
There is a glaring omission in Maine’s current “yellow flag” law – the only one of its kind in the nation – because it leaves family members powerless, even though they are often the first to know if a loved one is in crisis. As the Lewiston Commission made clear, this omission can have deadly consequences. Multiple people warned law enforcement that the would-be shooter was in a mental health crisis, but they couldn’t do anything about it. ERPOs will allow both family members and law enforcement to go directly to a judge.
Extreme Risk Protection Orders will save lives, especially our kids. Firearms are now the leading cause of death for American children and teens. Let that sink in – more American children die by guns than any other cause. In other states, ERPOs have been effectively used to disarm people who threatened school shootings.
These types of laws are also effective in reducing incidents of suicide – the leading cause of firearm death in Maine, especially among men. Allowing a family member to petition for temporary removal of a gun from a person in crisis is not only compassionate but will save lives.
This issue can often seem complex or too big to solve, but it isn’t. Gun violence is preventable. ERPOs are a common-sense policy that require strict evidence that someone poses a clear and present danger, so it protects our communities while preserving our rights.
And that’s important. We know that the corporate gun lobby will fight tooth and nail to stop any progress on this issue. They want voters to believe that anything we do to try and make our schools and communities safer comes at the cost of our rights. But that’s just not how it works, and Mainers are smarter than that. We know that gun rights and gun responsibility are compatible, and required. My husband has spent his career in law enforcement, as have other members of my family. He carries a gun with him every day. We have a gun in our home. And we are both proud to support this initiative.
Because no matter who we are, what our background is, or what our politics are, we can all agree that guns shouldn’t be the leading cause of death for kids. We must take every step we can to protect our children.
It’s time for Maine to pass this common-sense law. To keep your children, my grandchildren, and our communities safe.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.