There are things in this world we want to take for granted, like seeing schools as safe, experiencing houses of worship as sacred, and buying cans of soup without fear. Sadly, we cannot — not in the United States which experienced 213 mass shootings in the first 151 days of 2022, twelve of which were in Chicago.

The mass shootings in Uvalde, TX, Buffalo, NY, Laguna Woods, CA, and others that came before and after have impacted all of us. School children wonder if they’re next. Parents try to quell anxiety and keep their kids safe. People of all ages feel fearful and furious.

When our daily expectations of safety are violated, trauma ripples across the nation in waves of grief and rage. We cannot allow this to continue.

America is addicted to guns. Year after year, states strip away simple safeguards that would prevent mass shootings, things like age limits, bans on automatic weapons, comprehensive background checks, registries, and limits on the amount of ammunition one can buy. The list of preventative policies that we know will decrease mass shootings is ridiculously large. Yet the will to implement them is shamefully small.

Guns kill more young people than cars, according to a recent research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In fact, in 2020, guns became the number one killer of children and adolescents in America. This happened while Americans repeatedly obfuscated the issue by playing a long and tiring game of whataboutism – what about racism, what about mental illness, what about drugs, what about gangs – on and on it goes, until no one is asking what about the ease with which an 18-year-old can murder 19 fourth graders with an AR-15 automatic rifle. A gun that is a weapon of war.

Public health prevents — that is our mission. We must treat gun violence and mass shootings like any other epidemic — from a public health perspective. We must implement upstream solutions and downstream approaches to save lives, protect the public against threats, and address injuries to our physical and mental health. While addressing root causes is essential to reducing violence in America, we cannot lose sight of the fact that a racist with a knife is unlikely to kill 10 people in a grocery store and that having a gun is, in fact, one of the primary root causes of gun violence.

In these times, it is easy to feel like there is nothing to do, but that is never true.

Below is a small sampling of how each of us can participate in ending gun violence. We invite you to join us in this cause.

Resources to Take Action in Response to the Terrible Tragedy in Uvalde Texas
from Strengthening Chicago’s Youth

Youth Justice Organizations
from Crossroads Fund

Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund

Everytown for Gun Safety

Moms Demand Action

League of United Latin American Citizens – Uvalde Fund

Uvalde Victims Relief Fund
– for medical expenses –

Key pieces of gun legislation moving through Congress
from Brady United

Illinois Gun Laws
from Everytown for Gun Safety

Firearm Violence in Illinois: Infographic
from Strengthening Chicago’s Youth & The Collaborative for Children’s Health Policy

Gun Violence by the Numbers
from Brady United

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