Here We Go Again....

Here we are halfway through September, and we have already had a mass shooting at a school, not to mention two assassination attempts on Donald Trump in the last few months. As one who espouses listening over preaching and striving to understand positions you don’t agree with, I find the lack of urgency about protecting innocent victims from gun violence astounding.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, many ways exist to make guns less likely to indiscriminately kill while still allowing people to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms. (I will leave the debate if this amendment really applied to individuals rather than militia to other minds.) 

Let us think of the senseless killing of more than 48,000 people in 2022 (or about 132 people each day) as a public health emergency and act accordingly. 

Health specialists focus on various frameworks and strategies to address public health emergencies. With guns, a strategy includes, as I mentioned above, making them safer. This is not an oxymoron.  Guns could be programmed so only certain fingerprints could fire the gun. This would prevent small children from firing guns and would make a stolen gun worthless. 

Schools could be geofenced so guns would not work within the fence. This would help protect vulnerable students and their teachers. We could require anyone who owns a gun to get a license. You need a license to drive, why not to shoot?

Another way that officials address public health issues is by mobilizing communities. Most communities are deeply affected by gun violence these days. This is certainly true of Durham where I live. Community members must band together and demand from our politicians resources to curb the illegal use of guns. When community members come together in a single voice, change is possible. 

I want to reinforce that these ideas would not deprive any law-abiding citizen of owning guns but rather would help make us all safer from the gun violence epidemic.  Let’s get started.