If every lawmaker in this country would take one minute tonight to imagine that it was their son or daughter, grandchild, niece or nephew who did not return from their second-, third- or fourth-grade classroom today and instead was lying motionless in a hospital morgue, then we might have a chance at enacting common-sense gun legislation once and for all.

If every lawmaker could imagine tonight that these children who have today given their lives, which have barely started, on the battlefield that is gun control in this country, in the same way we see veterans whose sacrifices to our country we honor and revere, then these little lives given might help us to move into action and settle this battle once and for all.

Empty swing sets, empty beds, empty school desks, empty car seats, empty chairs in the children’s choir, empty seats at the dinner table should haunt the thoughts and hearts of every politician in America until we see this crisis of gun violence in schools ended.

Irving Williams
South Portland