Reduce firearm access to youth and individuals who are at risk of harming themselves or others.Hold the gun industry accountable and ensure there is adequate oversight over the marketing and sales of guns and ammunition.Engage responsible gun dealers and owners in solutions.Insist on mandatory training and licensing for owners.Require safe and secure gun storage.
Support gun violence research: Ensure that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others have the resources to study this issue and provide science-based guidance. Establish a comprehensive health system in which violence prevention is a health system responsibility and imperative.
Community healing: Prevent community trauma.Mental health and wellbeing: Invest in communities to promote resilience and mental health and wellbeing.
Through lobbying by the National Rifle Association (NRA), Congress has prevented the CDC from studying the causes of gun violence by claiming that research could be “used to advocate or promote gun control.” Congress even extended the ban right after the Charleston church shooting that left 9 people dead, by rejecting an amendment that would have repealed the ban.
Most Americans do not know the extent of our broken system; regulations are nearly non-existent. But one of the most frustrating obstacles to building a safer country free from gun violence is that Congress has banned federal gun violence research since the year I was born -- 1996.