Honest Men from Here on Out

“No honest man needs more than 10 rounds.” – William B. Ruger, Sr.

Gun-safety measures are on the ballot once again this election season, from local, state, and to the federal levels. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, guns remain the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States, as there have been 400+ mass shootings this year alone and over 14,000 deaths.

Most Americans are in agreement with the fact that our government needs to be investing in resources and support services that are centered around gun-violence prevention, as well as funding the solutions that are known to be effective. In conjunction with preventative measures, it is imperative that those who have been victims of gun-violence have the proper care and support that is needed to help them learn how to heal and cope with the aftermath of such violence, as the number of people who have been effected is only increasing. We not only need short-term solutions, but long-lasting ones that ensure the safety of generations to come.

Many Americans, whether they themselves are students or are parents to students, may still be thinking about the mass shooting that took place on September 4th, the first day of school at a high school in Georgia that killed 4 people and injured 9 others. Both the perpetrator and his father are now facing criminal charges, as details about how the assault weapon was acquired and the many red flags that were ignored have highlighted how this tragedy could have been prevented.

Sonali Rajan, Professor of Health Education and the founder of the Research Society for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms, studies evidence-based solutions that can mitigate the gun-violence epidemic. About the September 4th shooting, Rajan explained, “We’re learning more about the complicated nature of this particular case — and the ways this individual perpetrator moved from school to school, and the adverse childhood experiences [ACEs] that this teen was contending with”. She later stated, “We have many failed systems that placed this kid at heightened risk for violence perpetration, and then — enabled by permissive gun safety laws — we also made it easy for him to have access to a firearm. It was a perfect storm. In another nation that didn’t have such ready access to civilian firearm use, a teenager might have tried to harm himself or others, but it would have been much harder to perpetrate so much harm and so quickly.” 

Perhaps if there had been child access prevention laws (as well as other laws pertaining to red flags), this shooting could have been prevented, although this case exemplifies fractures within the current legal system, as well as other structures and institutions within society.

“This shooting could have been preventable with the right pieces of legislation in place,” said Rajan. “Our culture and public sentiment are shifting to where there are now calls for firearm owners to be held responsible for what happens to and with their firearms. But again, this alone is not sufficient to preventing gun violence from happening in the first place. Given the scope of this crisis in communities all across the nation, we need to pull on all possible levers to address gun violence well before there is a credible threat and do all we can to invest in children, schools, and our communities through evidence-informed policies and programs.”

Americans en masse are waking up to the reality that we do not have to live this way. We hope that we can unite during this election season to vote in representatives that will enact legislation and invest in social structures that will not only make our communities safe, but create pathways for us to heal from the trauma of gun-violence.