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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Last March 1, school violence and guns once again dominated our news programs as I prepared to inform the House of Representatives about school safety in Baltimore. The televised image of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland kept intruding into my thoughts.
On February 29, Kayla was learning to read and add in her first grade class near Flint, Michigan, when a little boy B also age 6 B pulled a .32-caliber handgun from his pants and fired a single bullet into her neck. Kayla Rolland died while my Republican colleagues in the Congress engaged in delaying tactics - failing to require the $12 handgun trigger lock that could have saved her life.
They say that no one can prove that Kayla's life would have been saved by a trigger-lock requirement. That is true, however, of all the measures we undertake to protect children.
We take those steps anyway in order to give our own children every possible chance to survive. What kind of people would we be if we failed to do everything within our power to protect other children's lives?
We cannot allow ourselves to forget. Bethel, Alaska; Pearl, Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Fayetteville, Tennessee; Springfield, Oregon; Littleton, Colorado; Conyers, Georgia; and Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma B these names call out to us, once-quiet places of learning that became killing fields in one terrifying moment.
Now, Mount Morris Township, Michigan, and 6-year-old Kayla Rolland call upon Congress to account for its inaction. If we continue to delay, another school will join America's trail of tears.
In Washington, in our nation's classrooms and in our own homes, it is time for all of us to stop talking about guns and take action.
In Washington, the Congress should approve the Clinton-Gore Administration's proposal for a $280 million increase in funding for firearms enforcement and undertake the long-overdue national debate about mandatory handgun licensing.
House-Senate conferees also should stop delaying their consideration of S. 254 / H.R. 1501 and recommend legislation that will (1) require background checks for all firearm transfers at gun shows, (2) require safety locks for all handguns and (3) further control assault weapons and ammunition clips.
President Clinton's historic agreement with the largest gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson, demonstrates that these safety measures are practical and achievable.
In our homes and schools, we also have it within our power to achieve victories over gun violence.
Each of us should encourage family members and friends to secure any handguns they may own with the inexpensive B but effective B trigger locks now available.
For the nation's schools, the student safety program in Baltimore City offers a national model of success worth emulating.
Assaults in Baltimore's public schools have been reduced by 34% since 1977. In 1994, there were 77 gun incidents on Baltimore City school properties. Now, gun incidents have fallen to 6 per year for two years' running.
On March 20, Takita Gilliam, Antonio Jones and fifty of their kindergarten classmates from Dallas F. Nicholas, Sr., Elementary School helped me to recognize the School System's Police Department and its Chief, Leonard Hamm, a special group of men and women who are giving Baltimore's children the safer schools they deserve.
Chief Hamm's strategy is based upon a simple but powerful idea: respect. He has fostered mutual respect among police, students and faculty. He has led them to understand that their school is like their own home.
In Baltimore, Leonard Hamm's strategy of mutual respect is working. The schools are safer, and the metal detectors are gone. That is why Chief Hamm and his officers deserved my U-TURN Award, created to recognize "unique techniques used to restore non-violence."
Thanks to Chief Hamm, Baltimore's students are learning an important and lasting lesson. Respect for others is an inseparable element of self-respect and survival.
Congress can and should learn as well. We should base America's gun control policy on renewed respect for the lives of our children.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
