Four ways to fight America’s gun violence

On a sunny afternoon in Parkland, Florida, Valentine’s Day was transformed from a day to celebrate love into a day to mourn yet another senseless loss of young lives.

There already have been more than a dozen school shootings in the United States this year. And, according to Centers for Disease Control, more than 7,000 children and teens are killed or injured by guns every year, on or off school grounds.

This is a singularly American phenomenon. Around the world, our nation’s rates of bullying, mental illness and non- lethal violence are comparable to other nations. Our rates of lethal violence are exponen- tially higher than in other developed countries. We are overrun with guns that are easily available to those who shouldn’t have them, because we have weak gun laws.

We know how to solve this problem:

1. Make it harder for people at risk of violence to get hold of guns. People with a history of violence, domestic abuse, alcohol abuse or anger- control disorders should be prevented from buying guns.

Licenses for gun buyers and comprehensive background checks, whether a buyer purchases a gun from a licensed store or a private party, will improve screening. But it’s not enough to screen buyers at the time of purchase. Some gun owners become at risk for violence months or years later. We should disarm gun owners who become prohibited from having guns, and create a process for removing guns temporarily from people in crisis.

2. Limit gun access to young people. We should require guns be stored locked and unloaded, especially when there are children or other vulnerable people at home, and raise the minimum age for gun possession to at least 21. Brain development for teens and young adults continues until the mid- 20s.

3. Limit access to military- style assault weapons and the attachments that increase their lethality, such as high- capacity magazines, bump stocks, and silencers.

4. Strengthen oversight of the gun industry. We should stop giving the firearms industry protect- ed status in the form of immunity from tort liability and exclusion from consumer product safety laws. We should give the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and state and local law enforcement the tools and resources to adequately oversee the firearms industry.

We choose not to solve this problem because a single specialinterest group — the National Rifle Association — opposes these and all other gun safety measures. And in many places, our elected officials care more about their fealty to the NRA than they do the well- being of our kids or the views of the majority of Americans. Case in point: Florida has among the weakest gun laws in the nation, according to the Giffords Law Center.

Our society’s failure to tackle gun violence threatens more than our kids. When a special- interest group is allowed to subvert the public’s will, it hijacks our very democracy.

Here are three things you can do today:

Join an organization and learn more about solutions to gun violence: Moms Demand Action and Giffords are two; there are many more operating in every state.

Learn where your elected officials stand on gun- safety measures.

If you are a gun owner, lock up your guns where they cannot be accessed by unauthorized users.

And one more: Hug your kids.