War Prevention Initiative: “Preventing school shootings is not rocket science”
For immediate release: February 16, 2018; Portland, OR
The War Prevention Initiative team is deeply saddened by the February 14, 2018 high school mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 individuals. Patrick Hiller, Executive Director of the War Prevention Initiative stated: “The frequency and patterns of such shootings are all-too-familiar: ‘another school shooting in [fill in the blank], killing [fill in the blank]. The shooter used an assault rifle by the type of [fill in the blank] with the capacity to fire [fill in the blank] rounds in rapid succession. This is the language of war with the weapons of war. For years and years, the government’s inability to constructively address this issue has been nothing but deplorable. Preventing school shootings is not rocket science. There is an abundance of data-driven and common-sense solutions on gun control that can prevent the deaths of 96 Americans by gun violence each day. By continuing our inaction, we are looking our children in the eyes and admitting that they might be sacrificed for this country’s love of guns.”
At the War Prevention Initiative, we strive to transform this nation’s militarism. The way the U.S. deals with domestic issues of violence mirrors the nation’s foreign policy. Violence and weapons of war are part of everyday life and blindly accepted as part of American society. If we wish to live in peace, we need to understand the ways that the U.S. economy and institutions are militarized. We need to understand the destructive ways we address problems and relate with other nations. And then we must advocate for the effective, proven constructive methods that will help us move away from this culture of violence.
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The War Prevention Initiative informs and educates about viable alternatives to war and violence.
For further comment or questions, please contact Patrick Hiller, War Prevention Initiative’s Executive Director at patrick@jubitz.org or 503 505-5721.
