精东影业

Another day in America, another massacre. The country is once again reeling from 鈥攖his time in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old armed with military-style rifles murdered 19 elementary school children and two teachers, less than two weeks after another 18-year-old murdered 10 people, most of whom were Black, at a .

While the individual grief of each of the families whose lives have been shattered is undoubtedly distinct, our collective response to these concurrent tragedies has become rote. If we aren鈥檛 yet numb to the violence visited on our communities鈥攊n churches, synagogues, mosques, grocery stores, and schools鈥擨 suspect most of us have come to expect it. The response is predictable: Local and national media will publish heart-wrenching photos of vigils for the dead, scores of people will turn to social media to express their outrage, and politicians will offer 鈥渢houghts and prayers鈥� while continuing to and the gun lobby. Meanwhile, the number of mass shootings continues to increase each year; 2021 saw a record high of 249 school shootings alone, . This year is already on track to surpass last year鈥檚 record, as the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Texas is the 137th school shooting in the U.S., less than six months into the calendar year.

These acts of domestic terror occur so frequently that deep networks of support already exist to support survivors, family members, and national and global community members moved to action. Chalkbeat, a nonprofit media outlet dedicated to reporting on education, has compiled a list of resources for parents and educators who are struggling to determine 鈥溾�� in the wake of this latest tragedy. The , likewise, has a plethora of resources for 鈥渃oping with mass shootings [and] understanding gun violence.鈥� is an advocacy organization (largely financed by Michael Bloomberg) formed after the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. The nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise, formed by parents whose children were killed in that school shooting, is in hopes of stemming the tide of violence.

Each of us responds to this kind of tragedy differently, and there is no singular 鈥渞ight answer.鈥� For me, as a journalist who has covered mass shootings before, as a Coloradan who knew people attending Columbine High School when that school鈥檚 name first became synonymous with gun violence, and as a parent to a young child, I struggle to find hope for meaningful change. I do not know how I will tell my daughter, who turned 2 in March, to prepare for the lockdown drills she will inevitably experience when she starts going to school. I do not know what to say to the teenagers in my life who have never known a true sense of safety inside their school walls, who continue to look to the grown-ups in their lives to help keep them safe, and who continue to see us fail to do so. I do not know what to say to the politicians who sidestep their responsibility to provide the most basic protection to their constituents and who continue to prioritize political donations and partisan politics over human life. I don鈥檛 have any answers.

But maybe you do, dear 精东影业 readers. Maybe you鈥檝e had conversations in your homes, your communities, or your city halls that have changed hearts, minds, or even policy. Maybe your own children have asked you questions that made you think differently about these issues, or maybe you have cultural or ancestral knowledge that can help us find a path forward. I invite you to join me and the 精东影业 staff in the comments section below. Tell us where your heart is today. Tell us what solutions you see, what conversations you鈥檙e having with your loved ones of any age, that point toward less violence. Share with us stories of restoration, of hope, and of harm reduction. Because it鈥檚 clear we can鈥檛 keep going on the path we鈥檙e on. But if we put our heads鈥攁nd hearts鈥攖ogether, maybe we can start to move toward solutions that keep us all safer.