Susan B. Katz

Because guns are now the leading cause of death among American children and teens

Mere months after the Sandy Hook massacre, armed assailants entered the elementary school where I taught. During that lockdown we protected 325 children as police scoured the school, helicopters hovered, and parents pleaded for word. When we finally released the students, I escorted terrified children into the embraces of sobbing parents. A few years prior, I’d stared down the barrels of a shotgun and pistol, while being mugged in broad daylight. Suffice it to say, I am pro-gun… control!

Guns are now the leading cause of death among American children and teens. As VP, overseeing the White House Office of Gun Violence, Kamala Harris helped pass the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the most significant gun-safety law in thirty years. The bill blocked gun sales to domestic violence perpetrators, allocated $300 million for STOP School Violence Act grants, funded states’ “red flag” programs, and enhanced minors’ background checks.

Compare Harris’s record to Trump, who reversed an Obama-era regulation that had made it harder for mentally ill people to buy guns. At a 2024 NRA campaign rally, Trump bragged that, “Every single Biden [and Harris] attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day.” In June 2024, Trump-appointed conservative justices lifted the ban on bump stocks. After the recent school shooting in Perry, Iowa, Trump told victims to “get over it.” As someone who has been directly impacted by gun violence, I know firsthand that our kids don’t just “get over it.”

While there is no “magic bullet” to solving the school safety gun epidemic, future President Kamala Harris will advocate for reinstating a national ban on assault weapons. Her opponent’s only answer to school shootings is to arm teachers. As Kamala said, “They are out of their minds.”

Susan B. Katz is an award-winning author of more than eighty books.