We know how to prevent another Olathe East shooting. Kansas, the time to act is now

As a pediatrician, I have long understood that gun violence is a public health threat to children, not just from the mass shootings that make the headlines, but the daily toll of homicides, suicides and accidental shootings that claim far too many young lives.

Earlier this month, I was shocked and saddened to learn a friend of mine was injured by a gun while he was at work as vice principal at Olathe East High School. The school resource officer and the teenager who had the gun were also shot.

When I think about the toll of gun violence not only in Kansas City, but also on communities across the country, I’m filled with a range of emotions from sadness to anger to determination to try and make progress. I think about the things we should be doing — big and small — to put an end to this problem that has forever impacted and senselessly taken too many lives.

In fact, gun violence claims the lives of more than 3,000 American children and teens in a year. Using data from 2008 to 2019, researchers found that 12.6 million years of potential life was lost from gun suicides and homicides. White men lost 4.95 million potential years primarily by suicide, while Black men lost 3.2 million potential years largely due to homicide. Gun violence is the leading traumatic driver of the years of lost life, surpassing motor vehicle collisions as of 2017. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, gun violence has contributed to an even greater share of total deaths across the U.S. population.

It does not have to be this way. We have tools that we know work to prevent gun violence and save lives. It is past time that we use them.

We know that there is not one simple solution, and it is going to take a combination of commonsense policies and interventions to protect our communities from gun violence. Take the motor vehicle fatalities example: Seat belts in conjunction with airbags, DUI laws, improved roads and child safety seats have all contributed to a five-fold decrease in traffic fatalities since the first law regarding motor vehicle safety were passed in 1966. We can take this same approach with gun violence prevention — strong, commonsense policies working together to keep communities safe.

Last year, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence once again gave Kansas a failing grade for our state’s gun laws, and lawmakers failed to make any progress to strengthen those laws this legislative session.

But we know there are policies that can reduce gun deaths and injuries in our state. There are several actions state legislators can take, such as banning “ghost guns” that allow people to buy kits to assemble untraceable guns online, or adopting a extreme risk protection order laws that permit family and law enforcement to temporarily remove firearms from someone who may be a danger to themselves or others. Laws that require that gun owners store their guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition can prevent children and others who should not have access to guns from obtaining one and using it to hurt themselves or others.

At the national level, Congress must continue to show its support for gun violence prevention research. Lawmakers recently showed their commitment to this issue with federal funding to conduct this research that can help save lives. It is critical that they build on this investment so we can better understand the causes of gun violence and the best ways to prevent it in the future.

We can do this. We know how. We can prevent gun violence and take steps toward keeping our children, families and communities safe. We cannot silently stand by as Kansans and communities everywhere are devastated by these preventable tragedies. Now is the time to act.