Isn't it time for change?
When thing's aren't working, we can't keep doing them and expect a different outcome
Like many of you, I stared in horror at my news feed this week witnessing another horrific act of violence, this time in my home state of Tennessee. Innocent lives lost, public outrage, and yet unnerving silence from those in positions of power who could chose to act. One elected official from Tennessee even went so far as to say: “I don’t see any real role [Congress] can do other than mess things up… I don’t think you’re gonna stop the violence; I think you’ve got to change people’s hearts.” Aside from the ridiculousness of this statement blatantly ignoring the mounds of evidence, examples from other countries, and the numerous experts who have all pointed out the solutions (which is not changing people’s hearts), what’s most infuriating is a member of Congress absolving themselves of any responsibility to do anything. It reminds me of the often overused meme, “You had one job.” Our elected officials are responsible for working to pass legislation that helps improve our communities, this includes the safety and protection of our children.
I have several ways I manage my emotions, and writing is one of them. I started to write a piece on school shootings, what the data show, how to talk to our kids, and more, only to realize that I had already written this piece last year after Uvalde. Then, I started thinking of how I needed to say something about mental illness and gun violence, anticipating the political folly to inevitably follow such a tragedy. The problem here was that I had already written this piece, too. And yes, even as I am writing now as one way to cope with what’s happened, it got me thinking again about how we can best manage all the pain, grief, anger, suffering, and so many more emotions that come from the loss of innocent life and how our countries inaction only flames these emotions.
So, I decided against this approach. We are in such a challenging place as a country that offering up a puff piece on stress management just didn’t do it for me. We need to do more. We need to move to action because things are not getting better.
Under our watch, we are literally seeing life expectancy drop. We’ve seen these trends in adults for years, and they are largely driven by things like deaths of despair, but there are new trends specific to our youth that are most disturbing. And if you think that gun violence, including school shootings, don’t play a role in this, you would be wrong. In a recently published JAMA article, Dr. Steve Woolfe and authors show data on how firearms have become the leading cause of death among 1 - 19 year old youth. Yes, you read that right. These firearm deaths make up nearly half (47.8%) of the increase in all cause mortality in 2020.
I worry we are becoming desensitized to tragedy. I can’t help but see an emerging passive indifference to horrific tragedies, including things like “more lives lost to drug overdose than ever before” or “the third school shooting this week.” And being desensitized can lead to us normalizing these problems or even worse, changing or influencing our behaviors. This includes our kids who are exposed to violence.
One study looked at teens and their exposure to violence in various aspects of their life, including school, in their community, and at home. They looked at teenagers to see if exposure to violence in pre-adolescence is related to violent behavior in late adolescence. The researcher’s found that the more teens are exposed to violence, the less they feel affected by it. Said differently, exposure to high levels of violence in pre-adolescence is linked to emotional desensitization to violence, which can lead to more violent behavior in late adolescence.
These are generational issues we are up against. So what do we do? How can we move to action?
Look at the obvious: It’s impossible to have any discussion on what to do without addressing guns. Out of the world's civilian-owned firearms, nearly half of them, specifically 46 percent, are owned by the United States, despite its population being less than 5 percent of the world's total population. You can’t look at the information we have out there and not see that we have to do something about guns. We have access to them at significantly higher rates than we have access to things we actually need to survive. Educate any and all on these issues; dispel myths and refute falsehoods with good old fashioned data.
Know the steps: We know preventing school shootings requires a multifaceted approach that includes a combination of policies and interventions, which include things like implementing stricter gun policies such as universal background checks, limiting access to assault weapons, and increasing the age requirement for purchasing firearms. All of these things are steps that can help prevent school shootings. It also requires collaboration and efforts from various stakeholders, including policymakers, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students themselves, to begin to take action around prevention. Be prepared to talk about solutions and give people as many resources as you can to help them be informed in their decision making.
Mobilize to action: Little can be done to convince policy makers to move to action if we don’t organize people to advocate for change. Creating a coalition of the willing, those who know the problem and want to speak out for the solutions takes time and resources. I have written about social movements before for mental health, and these same principles apply to gun violence. We have to bring people together and get them to stand up for our youth because at the end of the day, that’s who we are talking about here. Thankfully there are amazing organizations out there working on this like Sandy Hook Promise.
Invest in what works: Many countries with longer life expectancy and better health outcomes tend to prioritize investments in human and physical infrastructure for good health over health care expenditure. They also enact common sense gun measures, which also adds to an increase in life expectancy. Remember, the United States spends the most on health care, but in terms of overall life expectancy, it’s proving to not matter so much (see guns, drugs, poverty, and more). Other countries have focused more on ensuring access to education, stable jobs, affordable housing, and livable wages while providing support programs that assist young and poor families in tough times without sacrificing their children's health. Prioritizing and investing in people-oriented programs and infrastructure over health care spending leads to better health outcomes for the population. So does addressing the gun problem.
Take care of yourself: The profound stress that can come from a traumatic event is something we need to track, especially when it’s close to home. I feel like a broken record saying this, but managing stress is an essential part of maintaining good physical and mental health. Talk it out with someone, take a walk, get some sleep, do all the things you know help manage stress. Textbooks will tell you that by incorporating various coping strategies into our daily routines, we can reduce our stress levels and improve our overall well-being, and I believe this to my core. You can’t be effective at advocacy, regardless of the issue, without taking care of yourself. After these events, it’s normal to feel upset, to feel angry or sad. Listen to those emotions and manage them the right way so you can be your best self who helps do something about the problem.
It’s 2023, mortality trends are going in the wrong direction, and preventable tragedies happen all too often. No more. I plan to take the next week for my own mental health and decide on what part of the solution I want to be for these massive issues. I’d encourage you to do the same. Action should be our baseline - but yet sadly, we seem far from it.
It was time for a change years ago - I think of 1999 and Columbine. Since then the problem has only escalated and more - bigger - guns are available. There is something very wrong with that picture.
Thank you for this piece. Another way to take action is through Moms Demand Action or Students Demand Action. There are organizations and thousands of volunteers in every state. These two organizations can be found here https://www.everytown.org/about-everytown/ as well as at their individual organization websites. Mobilize. Take action. Get involved.