The PR Studio

I’m a taxpaying American and a petrified mother of a young son. I’d like to emphatically demand action on the distinctly American epidemic that is the routine mass shooting of innocent human beings.

Who should I see about that?

If anyone out there can hear me pleading for help and is actively listening, I have a few recommendations and requests.

To the President and Congress: Heads up, pencils down. Please stop the incessant squabbling and come together to fix this. If you can’t find common ground around preventing the slaughter of our children inside American schools, I fear our nation is hopeless. Mass shootings are becoming as American as apple pie. Are you okay with that? Our country is producing mass shooters. Is that what “Made in America” is intended to mean? As someone who contributes to your salary, I implore you to laser-focus on this American pandemic. Identifying a path forward is your primary work assignment – today, tomorrow and until you collectively come up with sensible solutions. I’ll remind you that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

To the Media: Be relentless. Use your trademark rabid fervor to help solve this national crisis. Cover it all day, every day and name names. Bring your tenacity and deep dive journalism that holds people accountable and contributes to impactful change. Your work (and applied pressure) will strengthen our country’s resolve and enhance our capacity to prevent future attacks. You are mission critical to the solution. I beg you to bring all your resources to bear.

Assign responsibility: Put someone in charge. Assign mass shootings to a federal government agency, committee or task force as a sole responsibility. Responsibility for mass shooting prevention must have a face and a name. No one can be held accountable if no one is in charge. As the Department of Homeland Security is to terrorism, there must be a centralized body assigned to the national coordination of prevention, intervention, and enforcement efforts. This entity could coordinate uniform standards, inform policy, and provide the resources and education needed at the local level. An incident of a mass shooting is an act of domestic terrorism and its perpetrators are domestic terrorists. Let’s treat it as such. America must become expertly adept at preventing mass shootings. Right now, lunatics are better at carrying out mass murder than we are at stopping it; that standard has to change. We are a nation of brilliant minds. We can do this. Remember that time we sent someone to the moon?

Identify the common denominators, establish best practices and implement a coordinated public awareness campaign: What are the common denominators among these killers? I’m not an FBI behavioral analyst, but even I can see the similarities. A singular entity should be responsible for being explicit and public about the common threads, inclinations, and tendencies, and then come up with a strategy to attack and address each one. The federal government must identify and establish public safety and public health best practices for every community and facilitate implementation of policies and procedures. There are bound to be inequities in expertise and capabilities when it comes to a communities’ ability to prevent and intervene. It’s incumbent upon the government to close that gap through training, education, and resources to give every community a fighting chance against random slaughter. This is the world we now live in. Once best practices have been established, the government should coordinate and implement a comprehensive public awareness campaign. Our post 9/11 existence gave rise to the “See Something, Say Something” initiative. That public outreach campaign has been impactful, but it requires ongoing education, promotion, and explanation. The public should be vigilant for what exactly? And say something to whom? Let’s get specific.

Pass gun reform laws NOW and enforce the necessary restrictions: The identified common denominators inform the path forward and the laws we need to save ourselves. First things first, reinstate the federal assault weapons ban and place drastic restrictions on firearm access for those with mental illness. Americans must demand “NO MORE EXCUSES” from those who have been elected to safeguard our best interests.  And Congress mustn’t care about hurting the NRA’s feelings because that train has left the station. I will, however, make the token statement to anyone who wants to be irrational about this – I’m not suggesting that we take firearms away from law-abiding citizens. I fully acknowledge that lives are saved when in the ongoing battle of Good vs. Evil, Good has its constitutional access to equal firepower. I get it. But it should be simple- the likes of Nikolas Cruz and Adam Lanza and “insert name of any mass shooter here” MUST NOT have access to high-powered weapons. Cruz killed 17 people in 3 minutes. It’s time we got real and got serious about the simple fact that individuals with mental illness must not have access to firearms, and we need to find a way to enforce it. As a nation, we must join our collective will and combine it with force to put an end to this now. Currently, the deranged, maniacal psychopaths, who are hell-bent on inflicting maximum destruction, are winning and the rest of us are losing. Maybe if we simply break it down to winners and losers, the message will resonate with the president – he seems to respond to that.

We are Americans. We should expect and demand to freely attend a country music festival or send our children to geometry class minus the fear of a madman with an assault rifle lurking in the shadows. Is that too much to ask from the United States of America, the land of the free? Or have we allowed our most basic of freedoms to become some off the wall, unreasonable expectation? Who are we and what have we become? I don’t recognize us anymore.

Lastly, a question to all the psychologists out there: what should I tell my son?

God Bless America.

Sincerely,

A Patriot and a Mama