Presidential commission on school safety won’t look into role of guns

It is amazing, although perhaps not surprising. The federal commission on school safety appointed by President Trump following the school shootings in Parkland, Florida will not examine what role guns played in the massacre. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is leading the commission, confirmed in remarks to the U.S. Senate that the group is not examining what factor guns played in the shooting. That would be equivalent to police investigating a traffic accident without checking if the driver was drunk. Or investigating a burglary without getting a descritpion of the suspect. DeVos says while her commission won’t investigate the role of guns in school shootings, it will be focused on school safety. So just what is the threat? Tripping over chairs? Falling ceiling tiles? No, guns are what pose the threat to school safety, and the commission is simply playing games if it isn’t going to examine the role of guns. The fact is, that while mass shootings make up a small percentage of gun deaths in the U.S. each year, this problem is largely unique to America. We have less than 5% of the world’s population, but are home to 31% of mass shootings across the globe. The school safety commission holds its first public meeting today. Let’s hope they get the message that it makes no sense to examine school safety without examining the role guns played in all these shootings.