5 Ways the Trump Budget Undermines Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Efforts

In his address to the nation the day after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and teachers and injured another 14, #45 vowed to take action, stating that he would soon hold meetings with governors and attorneys general in which “making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority.” However, the president’s actions have already spoken louder than these hollow words. Just two days before the shooting, his administration released its fiscal year 2019 budget, which proposed cutting funding to crucial programs that help prevent gun violence and ensure school safety.

Below are five ways that the Trump budget undermines efforts to reduce gun violence and keep our nation’s students safe.
1. Cuts funding to grant programs that help states get records into the background check system
2. Cuts funding to programs to improve school safety, climate, and responding to violence
3. Eliminates funding for safe and healthy students
4. Eliminates before- and after-school and summer programs for students
5. Continues restrictions on funding public health research into gun violence
By Chelsea Parsons and Scott Sargrad, Center for American Progress

Smith, Bessie, 1894–1937, American singer, b. Chattanooga, Tenn. About 1910 Smith became the protégée of Gertrude (Ma) Rainey, one of the earliest blues singers. After working in traveling shows she went to New York City, where she made (1923–28) recordings, accompanied by such outstanding artists as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and James P. Johnson. She quickly became the favorite singer of the jazz public. The power and somber beauty of her voice, coupled with songs representing every variety of the blues, earned her the title Empress of the Blues. Around 1928, changing popular taste and her growing alcoholism led to a decline in her popularity. Though she continued to tour, her last years were embittered. She died after an automobile accident while on tour in Mississippi, the circumstances of which are discussed in Edward Albee”s play The Death of Bessie Smith (1960). Numerous critics regarded her as the greatest of all jazz artists, and her fame increased enormously after her death.
Source: Fact Monster – Black History