The AAP and gun control. American Academy of Pediatrics.

Abstract

To the Editor — I am certainly not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. Thomas Jefferson Letter to George Washington January 4, 1786: “This plan…” The expression “children killing children” is becoming all too common. The recent killings at Santana High School in Santee, California, and Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, illustrate the terrible impact easy access to firearms has on our society’s children. Unfortunately, these horrific events are not isolated incidents. We in the United States have watched school shootings occur in Springfield, Oregon; Fayetteville, Tennessee; Pomona, California; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; and Bethel, Alaska. And the school shootings, as spectacular as they are in the media, are only the tip of the iceberg. While approximately 40 children die per year in schools in the United States, almost 4200 others die from homicide on the streets of our cities and …