LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Congress needs to act on gun laws

On "CBS Sunday Morning" Nov. 17,2024, "Portrait of a person who's not there: Documenting the bedrooms of school shooting victims." How can one watch the CBS piece and not identify with the heartache and pain of the families that have lost a child in a school shooting? On the other hand, how does one come away from watching this and identify with the gun industry and say they have a right to make money and sale guns?

1,453 school shootings occurred from 1997 to 2022. School administrators have implemented strategies to combat gun violence, like increasing security, locking doors, metal detectors and other measures, to make it harder for potential shooters to enter the school grounds. There is the “zero tolerance” firearm policies and active shooter drills. These are fine steps to keep our children safe, but members of Congress need to also act. Only they can pass laws that address access to guns, especially by minors. Only they can ban assault military-style weapons, used in most school shootings.

Why won’t members of Congress ban assault weapons and or enact greater gun laws? Are the lives of our children more important than whatever drives the members of Congress not to act?

Let this be the year members of Congress finally act and ban assault weapons and enact greater gun laws.

Valari Taylor

Rio Rancho