During a Special Meeting Tuesday, May 31st, the Falls Church School Board unanimously adopted a Statement on Gun Violence. In it, the Board commits to add gun safety items to its legislative priorities.
It also calls on State and National legislators to add the following "to protect our schools, students, and staff: barring the purchase of high capacity magazines; maintaining red flag laws; implementing mandatory waiting periods; enforcing universal background checks; requiring safe storage of guns and ammunition; banning ownership of assault weapons; mandating new handguns sold in the state have childproofing; adopting regulations on gun parts, and allowing local jurisdictions to make their own gun laws."
FALLS CHURCH CITY SCHOOL BOARD STATEMENT ON GUN VIOLENCE
As members of the Falls Church City School Board, we are horrified by the recent mass murders in Buffalo and Uvalde. Innocent people were killed senselessly, children among them. We are most directly involved in trying to prevent school shootings like Uvalde, but as elected representatives of the City of Falls Church, both incidents require an immediate response.
The Falls Church City School Board commits to adding gun safety items to our legislative priorities and will look for opportunities to further action on this critical issue.
The epidemic of violence began some time ago, and was slowed only by an actual pandemic. No one can be surprised that mass gun murders have happened again, and yet again. These last two tragedies also made absolutely clear that even armed law enforcement and guards are of limited use in the face of dedicated attackers armed with military-grade weapons and armor.
We look to our state legislators to add the following protections in our Commonwealth in order to protect our schools, students, and staff: barring the purchase of high capacity magazines; maintaining red flag laws; implementing mandatory waiting periods; enforcing universal background checks; requiring safe storage of guns and ammunition; banning ownership of assault weapons; mandating new handguns sold in the state have child proofing; adopting regulations on gun parts; and allowing local jurisdictions to make their own gun laws. We look to our national legislators to take parallel actions on the national level. The failure to take immediate steps would make those representatives complicit in endemic gun violence, emotional trauma, and mass executions.