![]() These sources of trauma emerge from homes, communities, workplaces and even schools. Experiencing an intense life trauma that has gone unaddressed, or multiple traumas, is almost always a dominating factor. We don't always know what the exact triggers are with each specific mass shooter, but we know many of the potential culprits. What we know for sure about the vast majority of mass shootings, as well as the daily incidents of less spectacular violence that don't regularly grab the national headlines, is that there was often some tragic experience or, more often, repetitive tragic experiences, in the lives of the perpetrators that brought them to a place of acting out in such horrifying ways. One of the most important questions we should examine is what engenders so much desperation in people, and causes them to lash out through violence in these ways. We need to delve deeper and do some collective soul-searching. Until we begin to more deeply explore and ultimately tend to the underlying causes of why so many people desperately turn to violence in the first place, we will likely see these kinds of horrors continue to grow unabated. But as we try to address the overall scourge of violence, gun control alone will never be enough. In particular, semiautomatic weapons should be banned, background checks implemented and "red flag" laws enacted, along with other crucial gun control laws. To be clear, we must maximize any momentum we have in this moment and implement gun control measures now. We typically only hear the stock pitches from the mainstream political camps: Gun control on one side (yes, please!) and not much of anything from the other, or sometimes a vague, less than half-hearted mention of mental health support and/or placing armed guards, um, I guess, everywhere? ![]() While there are many approaches we can take to turn this tide, the complex, multifaceted, root-cause measures that would actually help treat the underlying causes of violence aren't even on the table in our mainstream discourse, much less given serious consideration among policymakers. Gun violence is the leading cause of death among children. Our youth homicide rate is seven times higher than other Western nations. It's not just mass shootings that are terrorizing America: Someone is shot dead every 51 minutes. The horrors millions of children face, living in what are essentially our own war zones in too many communities across America - which can even lead to PTSD at levels similar to returning combat veterans - should alone be enough to motivate fundamental change. These are just some of the harrowing examples. Youth homicide rates are more than seven times that of other Western nations, and as of 2020, gun violence is the leading cause of death for children. One person is shot dead every 51 minutes across the U.S. It's not just mass shootings that are terrorizing our nation. RELATED: Gun violence is the health care crisis we're ignoring This is a moment that is calling us all to step up in ways we have not yet, but must. Maybe we are growing too numb, or too many of us feel resignation about our leaders' in ability to shift the trajectory, but we can't sit quietly and allow this to continue to spiral further out of control. Why can't we allow these all too frequent tragedies to become the wakeup call we use to invoke real change - one where we not only address gun control, but even more importantly, dig deep and tend to the root causes of violence. It's a shameful, rotting, entrenched pattern. Despite these exhausting, seemingly incessant mass killings, as usual there has been much grandstanding from many political leaders and pundits - including a powerful address to the nation by President Biden - but it is likely that little or nothing will done. ![]() Many more will suffer severe PTSD for a long time to come. Nineteen beautiful children never returned home to their loved ones. Amid the horrifying but ever-increasing scale of mass shootings in America, the most recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was especially heartbreaking.
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