Regarding "Clergy call for Missouri to reject Ten Commandments in schools" (March 25): State Sen. Jamie Burger says that “when prayer went out of schools … guns came in.”
I think he is mistaken on the cause of school gun violence. There has not been school-sponsored prayer in public schools since 1962. The first notable school shooting, Columbine, happened in 1999. So we went 37 years without major gun violence in schools when there wasn't school prayer.
Look up school shootings by year. They have steadily increased each decade since 2005 from single digits, to teens, to dozens, to currently in the 50s or 60s per year.
What changed? The increasing influence of the National Rifle Association and loosening of gun laws. The NRA spent $140 million on pro-gun candidates and lobbying since 2010. Think about that.
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In 2017 Missouri allowed permitless concealed carry; in 2021 Missouri passed the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” making it more difficult for local police to work with federal law enforcement regarding gun violence.
Missouri has among the highest gun death rates among all the states. We have no universal background check requirement, no owner licensing, no waiting periods, no concealed-carry permit requirement, no laws regulating gun shows.
There is a culture of gun worship. Really, it’s not lack of prayer that is killing our kids.
Susan Jarrett
Oakland
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