COEHS Statement on Youth Gun Violence and Schools

In our city, state, and nation, the nightmare of youth killing youth continues with frightening regularity. Near a school in the Albuquerque area, yet again, a gun has taken the life of a teenager. The College of Education and Human Sciences grieves for the families, students, and educators affected by this senselessness. We applaud and support the resource officers and administrators who guard the gates of our schools against this unending horror of gun violence.

They all could use our help, right now, because guns speak loudly, quickly, and with finality. Unlike the streams of words from us all that decry then fizzle into empty platitudes, guns mean what they say when they speak. As a faculty of education and human sciences in this society, we must ask ourselves some questions. How many grieving mothers are enough? How many bullets meant to solve some silly issue must be retrieved from lifeless immature chests? Is there no limit to the youthful potential that must spill into our streets, like wasted water?

Let us all wake up, join forces, and go to work against our familiar foes of ignorance and poverty. To end this craziness, let us let our children know that we love them enough to work interdependently for their good and our common welfare. Let us act now.