There’s an increasing amount of unspeakable tragedies occurring on a regular basis throughout the country. We all struggle to make sense of it, we try to find our own ways to comfort the families and communities that are affected, but at the end, it’s understood that we’re powerless and unable to defend ourselves once at the wrong end of a gun.
The most important part of healing is the conviction to do everything in your power to keep tragedies related to gun violence from taking place again. Moreover, we need to keep in mind that it’s not just high-profile cases such as the Aurora movie theater or the Sandy Hook Elementary that we need to prevent from happening; we need to put a stop the daily death-by-gun cases as well that claim nearly 30,000 lives on a yearly basis.
In the bid to put an end to violence, we should consider the below mentioned actions to overcome gun violence in America:
1. Gun Safety
The first thing we need to do is establish a culture of gun safety. To begin with, licensing and training on top of safe and secure gun storage should be mandatory, and those who own guns should be required to renew their permits and refresh their training on a regular basis with stringent requirements such as those of driver’s license renewal.
2. Mental Health Treatment
Widely accessed, culturally competent, and high quality psychological health treatment, should be in the Affordable Care Act’s implementation. With the rise of gun ownership, mental health throughout the nation has been dropping. We need to reduce this stigma associated with services related to establishing strong mental support and stand with all individuals who wish to seek or simply require high quality mental health treatment.
3. Trauma Reduction
Children’s exposure to violence should be seriously reduced. The impact of trauma should also be addressed with the implementation of specific programs. It goes without saying that the children are openly witnessing and experiencing violence on a shocking scale. As such, we should know what actions to take in order to address a child’s exposure to such elements.
4. Sensible Gun Laws
High capacity magazines should be banned, the 24/7 gun background check should be expanded and made universal, and the ban on assault weapons should be reinstituted immediately as well. We need to reinforce the fact that assault weapons have absolutely no place in our society beyond the battlegrounds. Our places of worship, local schools, movie theaters, and all such places should be free of any violence caused by assault weapons.
It’s up to us – we need to vow to alter our policies and culture in order to stop this repetitive cycle of gun violence. We can take action together in the memory of all those who have suffered or died due to gun violence and insist on never letting any such incident happen ever again.