5 Things To Do After Another Mass Shooting

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And 5 Things NOT to Do

I am feeling heartsick and enormously sorrowful after yet another, and another, mass shooting in the US.
 
We all are.
 
Like others, I want to DO something about it. Not just analyze it, talk about it, feel bad about it. Another one is coming. More mass shootings are coming. I want to DO something that will make them come less often, allow fewer of them to happen.
 
But what can I do that will actually make any difference? Because I’m also, like others, feeling hopeless and powerless. I'm writing another post after another mass shooting. I even had a category of blog posts to add this one to--"mass shootings"

That's just wrong. Nothing is changing
 
Many of us have been doing many things that don’t work, that reinforce our sense of powerlessness.

​Here are 5 things NOT to do:

1. Offer thoughts and prayers
2. Post your sorrow on social media or “like” or “sad face emoji” others’ sorrowful posts
3. Demand better mental health treatment
4. Demand more gun control with no actionable specifics
5. Blame someone

 
That can’t stand. We have to take action. Meaningful, purposeful action.

Here are 5 things TO DO that have a better chance of making a difference:

1. Read others to increase your outrage and motivate you to act (see Leonard Pitts’ column , Polly Mosendz’s story on Medium, or the shocking crowdsourced mass shooting tracker)
2. Contact each of your legislators to ask them what they are going to do to reduce future mass shootings
3. Find specific proposals that you support and contact each of your legislators to ask them to support those proposals 
4. Take to social media to ask all your followers to contact their legislators to support those proposals
5. Vote! At every election, vote!

 
And vote for all who support stricter gun control legislation and vote against any who resist gun control and instead blame immigrants or mental health systems or even hateful tweeters instead of proposing and supporting specific gun control laws

Yes, other issues matter in every election, and yes, other systemic issues contribute to mass shootings, but we have to act together in overwhelming numbers and soon to get military weapons and ammunition out of the hands of shooters before any other actions stand a chance of being effective.
​
We have to do what we can NOW to limit the number and damage of mass shootings. 
 
You don’t have to agree with me about which policies to support, but I know you too feel the devastation.

Find solutions you believe in, whatever evidence shows might work. You can search congress.gov for federal proposals that have been introduced and legiscan.com for proposals in all 50 states as well as Congress.

Push for those solutions to the people who can make them happen. Vote for those people who commit to making them happen.
 
Send laws in addition to thoughts and prayers.
 
And send a message. VOTE

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