Randi Weingarten, president ot the American Federation of Teachers, announced today (Jan. 3) that the organization supports "commonsense" gun-control legislation, including banning assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
The organization represents 1.5 million teachers and other school-related personnel.
"American's duty is to provide safe and secure public schools for every child, and the reasonable gun violence-prevention legislation introduced today by Reps. Carolyn McCarthy and Diana DeGette will go a long way to make that a reality. We call on Congress to pass this legislation."
The proposed gun legislation comes in the wake of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn. last month that resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six educators.
The shooting has brought renewed calls for gun control legislation from some, while the National Rifle Association has said there should be armed guards in schools.
"The Sandy Hook assailant was armed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition," Weingarten said in the prepared statement. The Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act would ban the production and sale of the high-capacity ammunition clips used in this horrific attack."
Loretta Kalb started her reporting career at The Sacramento Union, moved to KOVR-13 as a television reporter, editor and producer, headed to The Associated Press in San Francisco and eventually returned to Sacramento and joined The Sacramento Bee. Throughout her career, she has covered the state Legislature, courts, local government and, now, education. She is a Chico native and an Elk Grove resident.
Diana Lambert began her journalism career as a proofreader at the Lodi News-Sentinel. She is now a senior writer at The Sacramento Bee covering K-12 education and California State University, Sacramento. Previously she was The Bee’s Elk Grove bureau chief. Lambert was raised in a military family and lived at bases around the globe. She attended four high schools, graduating from Tokay High in Lodi and then Sacramento State University. She lives in Elk Grove.
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