In Light of Recent Gun Violence in Our Community

On Wednesday, August 14^th, 2019, six Philadelphia police officers were injured in a shooting during a standoff with a man with what started as a narcotics warrant visit. We have already seen a number of incidents in the past few weeks involving gun violence: Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; and Gilroy California. In the span of one week, these three incidents have killed 35 and injured 64 people.

Just last week, National Council for Behavioral Health released a paper titled Mass Violence in America: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions. It proposes community-wide recommendations for health care organizations, schools, communities, law enforcement agencies, the courts, legislative and government agencies, research entities, and the media, to address mass violence. Patrick J. Kennedy also released a statement, urging readers to promote the propagation of credible information over the sensational headlines and rhetoric present in the media surrounding these incidents. In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, it is difficult to control the narrative of these incidents, and we cannot forget how trauma affects people at different levels of involvement. To seek real change, we all  must work together to get to the root of the problem and continue to strategize meaningful, long-term solutions and keep a trauma-informed lens as new ideas develop.

Follow the link below learn more of the recommendations listed in the full article. We encourage all readers to carefully analyze their role in managing mass violence events before, during, and after they happen, and to promote healthy, productive discussion surrounding prevention and damage control in our community.

https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mass-Violence-in-America_8-6-19.pdf