FIREARM REGULATION

Despite not yet reaching the halfway point of 2022, Americans have already lived through more mass shootings than days on the calendar. Twenty-seven have occurred inside schools or on school grounds alone.

While mass shootings draw the most attention and the most outrage, the percentage of people killed in these tragedies (2 percent in 2021) pales beside the numbers lost to gun suicides (54 percent), deaths from unintentional shootings (4 percent), and from gun crime and other violent incidents involving firearms (40 percent).

The reality is America doesn’t just have a mass shooting problem. It has a much wider gun violence, gun suicide and unintentional shooting problem that touches more of us with every passing year.

Responses from lawmakers after the most-publicized incidents range from tepid “thoughts and prayers” to righteous outrage. Some of the more courageous ones even go as far as to propose specific changes in the law that are usually framed (depending on who is doing the framing) as either “gun control” or “gun violence prevention.”

The bad news in a country with over 400 million firearms in circulation is that gun violence can never be fully “controlled” or completely “prevented.” But the good news is there are proven and effective ways to reduce the level of risk while opening the door to someday returning to a point where children are no longer afraid to go to school and adults aren’t afraid to go the grocery store.

It’s time we start looking at gun violence as a public health issue and not as an ideology test.

Sensible steps — like expanded background checks, waiting periods, higher age limits for gun ownership, and red flag laws that allow the temporarily removal of firearms from those presenting an immediate danger to the community or themselves — are all examples of “slices” that could work together to reduce the risk of tragedies involving firearms.

Other initiatives could involve greater access to school-based mental health resources for at-risk children, community policing efforts to build trust in “hot zone” communities where the risk of shootings and gun crimes is higher, and putting more teeth into laws to requiring safe firearms storage in homes with children under age 18. While none of these measures alone can prevent every possible tragedy all by themselves together, in combination with other steps, they can all work together to substantially reduce the overall level of risk.

What New Hampshire needs isn’t “solutions” driven by ideology. Instead, our state needs a balanced, practical, datadriven, good-faith approach to reducing the risk of gun violence. Our approach must also be multi-pronged, involving not only changes to the law to better protect public safety, but also enhanced emergency readiness in schools and other vulnerable places, improved programs for getting potential offenders the help they need, more effective community policing and preventive measures, and input and engagement from responsible gun owners, too.

Efforts like the Manchester Police Department’s Gun Violence Prevention Strategy outlines great examples of some of the “slices” that can be added at the community level to reduce risk. Meanwhile, programs like the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Project Child Safe, which has distributed over 40 million free gun locks through local police departments, are a good example of effective action that can be taken by responsible gun organizations without changes to the law.

The bottom line is the status quo is no longer acceptable. Contrary to what our governor says, our state’s weak and ineffective gun laws are NOT “fine the way they are.” Weak laws leave the door open not only to potential mass shooters, but also to the everyday toll of unintentional shootings, gun crimes and gun suicides.

Don’t just listen to what your elected officials say; watch what they do and ask them, “Are you in or are you out when it comes to doing the hard work of reducing the risk of gun violence in our state?” Your vote in November will be their report card.

Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, is a member of the NH House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.