CH should join in national discussion on gun violence

To the Editor:

In 1994 Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, a ban on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms defined as assault weapons and certain ammunition magazines. In 2004 the ban expired and was not renewed. In Ohio, some municipalities were able to withstand pressure from the NRA and the state of Ohio that was undermining local governments’ authority to continue the assault weapon ban until 2010, when the Supreme Court of Ohio and the attorney general were able to preempt and invalidate the local assault weapons ban.

(The facts above are from Dennis Kucinich's website dealing with this issue.)

We do not need to enumerate the number of mass shooting incidents across the United States since 1999—it’s been done so many times over the last week in the media. Suffice it to say that hundreds of children and adults have been killed or injured by someone using this kind of weapon, equipped with high-capacity magazines allowing such unbelievable destruction to be committed in just a few minutes.

Can we not resolve, in the city of Cleveland Heights, that banning such weapons would serve the best interests of our community? Can we not join the national discussion that is happening now, thanks in large part to the marvelous young people in Florida, where the latest horror happened, who are forcefully raising their voices to demand change?

Local communities and school boards across the country should join in these efforts. What is there to lose besides more children and teachers? Years ago, Cleveland Heights passed a resolution that declared the city a Nuclear Free Zone. Do we have the energy and courage to do the same regarding assault weapons?