It is clear that so many of us have been deeply impacted by the horrific school shooting in Newtown. My social media channels have been flooded by this event in a way I can’t remember happening before. Countless expressions of deep, deep sadness. Now, as the days pass many have started asking how to turn this deep emotion into positive change. How can we better protect our children?

These are not new questions. After all, this is not a new problem. In the United States, one child or teen dies every three hours due to gun violence and we have had an alarming number of mass murders over the past few years. But, I became hopeful that perhaps this is finally the moment for change after hearing President Obama say,

“In the coming weeks, I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this, because what choice do we have? We can’t accept events like this as routine.”

But, change will not come from the White House alone. This must be primarily a grassroots effort, with people like you and me demanding that we do better. In trying to figure out what I can do to help, I’ve done a lot of reading and thinking.

I strongly believe that we need to think about violence prevention from a public health perspective. We need to set aside emotion and look at what is known about the causes of injuries and death from gun violence on a population level. I have learned that this is harder than it otherwise would be due to limitations that politics has placed on research in this area. In the Journal of the American Medical Association, Drs. Kellermann and Rivara state,

“The nation might be in a better position to act if medical and public health researchers had continued to study these issues (firearm injuries) as diligently as some of us did between 1985 and 1997. But in 1996, pro-gun members of Congress mounted an all-out effort to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [. . . ] The effect was sharply reduced support for firearm injury research.”

So, there’s the first common sense action we can take. We can demand a return to funding well-done research on firearm injuries and violence prevention, much like we have done with issues like drowning, seat belts, and air bags.

In addition, a number of areas of potential intervention have been brought to the fore since Newtown. Let’s look at each of these.

Gun Control

There are a number of things we know to be true about firearm-related injuries in children. This fall’s report from the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention states,

“The absence of guns from children’s homes and communities is the most reliable and effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries in children and adolescents. Adolescent suicide risk is strongly associated with firearm availability. Safe gun storage (guns unloaded and locked, ammunition locked separately) reduces children’s risk of injury. Physician counseling of parents about firearm safety appears to be effective, but firearm safety education programs directed at children are ineffective. The American Academy of Pediatrics continues to support a number of specific measures to reduce the destructive effects of guns in the lives of children and adolescents, including the regulation of the manufacture, sale, purchase, ownership, and use of firearms; a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons; and the strongest possible regulations of handguns for civilian use.”