Guns are the leading cause of death among children in America.

Not disease. Not malnutrition. Not accidents. Not drug overdoses. Guns.

Yet Republican state legislatures believe books to be the biggest threat to children.

They’re spending millions upon millions of dollars banning thousands of books and jailing librarians while schoolchildren are being slaughtered by gunmen armed to the teeth.

They’re spending millions upon millions upon millions of dollars in a domestic arms race.

Since Sandy Hook less than ten years ago, the nation has suffered more than 3,500 mass shootings. Republicans have tried to refute these slaughters by claiming they didn’t actually happen, or insisting more guns are needed to take out a shooter, or that we need to harden targets, or that we need more police in the schools.

Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where the most recent murders took place, had already been hardened with the town investing more than $650,000 in security enhancements, but the shooter walked in through an unlocked door.

The Uvalde Police Department consumes forty percent of the town’s budget. It has a six-officer department to oversee eight schools, as well as a city police force with its own SWAT team. All this weaponry and manpower for a town of 16,000 people.

The events in Uvalde have dealt a devastating blow to the winsome theory that a good guy with a good gun will prevent bad gun violence.

The more guns, the more people die. In 2004, since a ten-year federal ban on assault weapons expired, gun sales have swelled and mass shootings have tripled. There are now 20 million AR-15 assault-style rifles in America.

How many more children need to be shot to death before Republicans see the error of their ways?