A group of figures equipped with hammers, pickaxes and a bucket labeled voucher school supplies approaches a brick building marked public education. One suited man in the foreground points forward while holding a pickaxe. The July 2026 image from Pat Bagley highlights ongoing debates over school voucher programs and their impact on traditional public schools.
The February 14, 2018, Parkland school shooting in Florida killed 17 people and renewed national debate over gun access and school safety. Lawmakers faced immediate pressure to act on background checks and assault weapons while the NRA and congressional allies resisted new restrictions. The cartoon frames the event as another grim normalization, placing active shooter lockdown alongside traditional childhood milestones to underscore how repeated mass shootings have altered expectations for American schools.
The December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, killed 20 children and six adults, renewing calls for gun control measures. Similar prior attacks at Virginia Tech and an Aurora, Colorado, theater had already prompted debate. The piece argues the NRA must confront these recurring tragedies directly rather than avoid policy responses.
