Time to Prevent Another Tulsa

 

By Jeff Tieman

 

Last week, our nation’s gun violence epidemic spread to a Tulsa, Oklahoma hospital where an aggrieved patient shot and killed four innocent people including another patient, two doctors and a receptionist.

 

Hospitals and health care settings are places of healing and hope. Together we must do everything possible to ensure they are not sites of death and destruction. More broadly, it is vital that our nation and state work to understand the tragic problem of mass shootings and summon the courage to address it.

 

We have made solid progress here in Vermont. A few years ago Gov. Scott approved a gun safety bill that expands background checks, limits magazine capacity and requires people under 21 to take a safety course before purchasing a gun.

 

And earlier this year, the legislature passed and Gov. Scott signed a bill to ban guns in Vermont’s hospitals. As I wrote in a previous column, this was an important step to protect the safety of patients and staff alike.

 

I hope we can build on these helpful measures and strike a better balance between freedom and safety—and do so quickly.