Tell school administrators: lockdowns aren't enough, ask parents to secure their guns

Tell school administrators: lockdowns aren't enough, ask parents to secure their guns

Started
December 14, 2021
Petition to
School district superintendents, boards of education and heads of school
Signatures: 3,875Next Goal: 5,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Jonathan Perloe

Students can’t learn, and teachers can’t teach, if they aren't safe in their schools. School district superintendents and other school officials need to do more than lockdown drills to protect students, teachers and staff from the threat of gun violence. They need to address a root cause of school shootings: the irresponsible behavior of gun owners who don’t securely store their firearms.

We saw this play out yet again in Virginia, where a mom's grossly irresponsible behavior led to her six-year-old son shooting his first grade teacher. 
 
Schools have a vital interest in keeping students and educators safe. As credible messengers, school superintendents, boards of education and heads of private schools should use their authority and direct lines of communication to parents to educate them about the urgency of safe firearm storage and safe storage laws, and the legal consequences of not securing their firearms. This letter to parents from the Superintendent of the New Rochelle (NY) School District is a model all school districts should follow.

Two-thirds of school shooters obtain the gun they used from their home or the home of a relative.
 
Each year, hundreds of thousands of students around the nation are terrorized by threats of violence in school, leading to lockdowns, school closures and widespread student absences. Not long after the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in Michigan, a "National Shoot Up Your School Day" challenge was posted on Tik Tok.  Although investigations determined an absence of credible threats, the damage to students’ and educators’ emotional well-being and disruptions to learning is a national disgrace. It all links back to easy access to guns and irresponsible gun owners. Every threat is potentially another Sandy Hook, Columbine or Parkland. Regardless of whether the threat turns out to be real, the damage is done.
 
Far too many gun owners are creating dangerous conditions that put their children, their children’s friends and their children’s classmates and teachers at grave risk:

  • Some 1 million students ages 12 to 18 report having access to a loaded gun without adult permission.
  • Nationwide, 4 in 10 parents incorrectly believe their children don’t know where their guns are kept, and 1 in 5 are contradicted by their children who said they handled their parents’ guns without the parent knowing.
  • Nearly 5 million children live in homes with an unlocked, loaded firearm.
  • Less than one-third of gun owners with children in the home store all of their guns unloaded and locked.

Responses from school administrators asserting that “nothing is more important than the safety and security of our students and staff” need to be backed up with action. Communicating to parents about gun owners’ legal and moral obligation to securely store their firearms is a tangible step towards fulfilling their commitment to safety. It can’t happen soon enough.

More guns locked up. Fewer lockdowns.

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Signatures: 3,875Next Goal: 5,000
Support now
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Decision Makers

  • School district superintendents, boards of education and heads of school