President's Message
“…and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6
Has a new moment arrived in our national conversation about guns? If there is momentum for change, we have high school students to thank. Their organizing power, passion, and information got the attention of policy makers in ways I have not experienced in the past.
I understand several events are planned to protest gun violence and the lack of state and federal responses: National School Walkout on March 14 and March For Our Lives on March 24. Perhaps members of our Beach community might find it in their hearts to amplify efforts by these children to save themselves in a context where gun violence is enabled by policy makers dependent on special interest money hiding behind an outdated interpretation of our constitution.
Students who organize to save the lives of their classmates are involved in a noble cause that should finally reframe the focus of the gun control debate from Second Amendment rights to the power of money and greed evident in the U.S. firearms manufacturing machine. Does anyone doubt anymore that money is driving resistance to background checks, age limits for buying weapons, congressional prohibitions on taxpayer funded public health research involving guns, and bans on military style assault weapons? I hope not.
We have known for decades that the U.S. has a high rate of gun-related deaths per capita compared to most developed nations. High profile tragedies — including Parkland, Sandy Hook, Pulse, Las Vegas and Columbine — make headlines, of course. Much less attention is paid to the thousands of gun-related deaths that happen on our streets every year. Sadly, we have personal experience with this in our student Estephan Hernandez.
Only those who are unaware of global statistics on gun-related deaths think that arming more people is the answer to reducing violence. More guns result in more deaths. Further, schools will never have enough police officers to protect every classroom. Meeting violence with violence may resolve a single instance, but does nothing to solve the large-scale denial that solutions are possible.
Better mental health services are part of the solution, but only if they comprise coordinated assistance packages for depressed, angry, often victimized potential perpetrators. The confessed perpetrator of the Parkland shooting was well known to students, teachers, neighbors and law enforcement as potentially dangerous. Rather than arming teachers, let's deconstruct that situation and learn from it. Even with information, why could he not be stopped? There are answers if we look deeply and avoid offering "thoughts and prayers" in lieu of policy change. Importantly, the Centers for Disease Control should be allowed to use public money to research gun violence as a public health threat. Let's create evidence to inform policy.
While I make it a practice to avoid statements not specifically related to The Beach, I must speak out on this. Our campus will spend badly needed resources over the next few years on shelter-in-place locks to protect our students, faculty and staff. We were inspired to move our commencement ceremony, in part, due to security concerns in securing large public gatherings. We already spend many hours and resources on special training for our police in active shooter training, and on additional training videos, drills, and surveillance equipment. These resources could have been directed to educational aims. Instead, we are fortifying a public university. This is wrong.
Go Beach!
