Letter to the editor: Gun violence is killing and traumatizing our kids

I’ve already lost my brother to gun violence. I refuse to lose my son, too, amid a surge of shootings that are killing, injuring and traumatizing our youth at a scale I’ve never seen.

A few weeks ago, my 14-year-old son and his friends were pulling up to the Haunted Hills Hayride in North Versailles when they heard gunshots. We later learned this was the fatal shooting of his Central Catholic High School classmate and the critical injury of a Penn Hills High School student. When my son got home, he was so traumatized and could not speak. The incident forced a decision to ban fans from attending the Penn Hills-Woodland Hills football game, impacting one of my son’s favorite outlets — football.

As a mother, it’s my job to protect my children. But I can’t lock them up in the house and deprive them of a life, just to prevent them from getting shot.

A recent study showed that exposure to gun violence is linked to higher rates of mental health emergency department visits by children. Our kids are literally afraid for their lives. We risk losing an entire generation to this violence.

To reverse this trend, we need to pass a state law requiring that lost and stolen firearms be reported to police, which has been shown to reduce the number of illegal guns that fuel so much youth violence. We also need to invest in teaching conflict resolution skills to our young people, so they don’t turn to guns to resolve every disagreement.

Valen Tasser

Penn Hills