Another mass shooting at school. More innocent children and staff slaughtered by a disturbed individual who purchased her weapons of mass murder legally. More young victims of gun violence, which is now the leading cause of death among children and adolescents — an epidemic by any definition of the word.

Yet it is an epidemic we all know will continue unabated in the current political climate. The Republican Party is so in the pocket of the gun industry and the gun rights lobby, that all efforts at meaningful gun reform will be thwarted. And these cynical actors don’t stop there. Hiding behind a fetishized view of the Second Amendment and aided and abetted by recent misguided Supreme Court rulings, they’re trying to impose a radical gun rights agenda on other states like Hawaii, which already had responsible gun laws.

Short of a repeal of the Second Amendment, our options are limited, but we must act aggressively where we can. For one, the City Council should designate as many venues as possible where concealed carry is not allowed. There’ll be a hue and cry from gun “rights” folks, but so be it. Their attempts to fetishize gun rights under the Second Amendment is not a solution but a license for mayhem.

Michael D. Clark

Ala Moana

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