We'll never know who they might have been...
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos was the kid who invited other kids home. He lived a block away from his school, Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, TX, and so it was easy to bring others to his house. His grandfather recalled that their yard was often packed with children. It must have been pandemonium, a yard filled with healthy boisterous children enjoying free play. Noisy, but delightfully so.
Jayce loved his grandparents. He made them a pot of coffee each morning, and left notes for them, often writing, “I love you.” Their home must now be painfully silent.
Jayce sounds like such a warm and loving child. He would have grown into a good, empathetic man, perhaps a teacher, or a community leader. We will never know, because Jayce, along with two of his teachers and 18 classmates, including his cousin, was killed on May 24 in his classroom. He was murdered by an 18-year-old who had legally purchased AR-15s.
There is something wrong with a society that allows teenagers to buy weapons designed for the battlefield. We all know this, whether we admit it openly or stay silent. Even when 18-year-olds are issued assault rifles IN the battlefield, they are not permitted to walk about freely with them. So why do we allow it in our cities, on our streets?
Since the Uvalde massacre, the battle to once again ban access to assault weapons is underway. This is a tough hill to climb, I know, and it is hard to see how it will go. There are so many who oppose it, backed by so much big money.
But it is a battle not currently being waged in the state house in Lansing. There, lawmakers have only a handful of gun safety bills to consider, bills like the one that requires responsible gun owners to safely store their weapons. That seems an easy one to pass. My senator’s refusal to consider it suggests otherwise. “Slippery slope,” I’m told when I ask why anyone would not want to see that bill become law. “Pass one bill and they’ll be coming for all our guns next.” This is nonsense, a fallacy, an unwarranted fear, but one that the NRA and its advocates have played into for far too long. Michigan’s Republican-led legislature plays into it, too.
Meanwhile, the body count of children keeps growing.
Summer days are dwindling and schools are reopening for the fall semester. Sensible gun safety bills languish under my senator’s watch. That can change. It is in his hands to do so.
For Jayce.