Thread by @davidhogg111

THREAD I’m exhausted of us focusing on what we can’t agree on after these shootings and not what we can. Now that the GOP has the house I have a proposal for what common ground I think we could find. Even if you don’t agree with me please read this.

We always hear the argument that it’s mental health and not guns. While I don’t agree in thinking it’s just MH I DO agree MH is important- Here’s some common ground I would be open to working with house Republicans and Dems on.

In my view there are two buckets we have to address if we ever want to reduce GV

1. Capability (HOW) someone gets a gun. This includes laws, trafficking, enforcing laws, etc.
2. Intent (WHY) someone pulls the trigger. Mental health, hate, lack of resources, poverty etc.

Republicans really do not like talking about addressing capability for a number of reasons we are all aware of. But they always point to addressing intent and I do see that as important but in a slightly different way.

(Sources for all I’m about to say at the end of this thr)

Starting with suicide prev:

Area for common ground #1
I think there is room to work together on getting the CDC and NIH more funding to study how to prevent gun suicide because it gets little research funding in comparison to things like sepsis that have similar death rates.

Just for context

Sepsis kills roughly as many Americans as gun violence, yet government funding to study gun violence is only 0.7% of sepsis

Area for common ground #2
More block grants for states to fund their mental health care systems and suicide prevention programs- especially in schools more because rates of anxiety and depression amongst kids is going up and has been for a while.

Area for common ground #3
Pass the The Preventing Suicide Through Voluntary Firearm Purchase Delay Act that would curb gun suicides by allowing people to voluntarily enroll themselves onto a “do not sell” list.

Sponsored by. @RepJayapal (D) & John Curtis (R)

Just some stats:

-2/3 of gun deaths are suicides

-Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date.

- Guns are the most lethal method of suicide (85% fatal) but not the most common attempt method

- Gun suicides are disproportionately impacting the Republican constituency. Most likely to die by suicide are gun owning, older men in rural areas.

Next area:
Gun murder

Area for common ground #4
Getting more funding for schools and communities for after school programs, better training for counselors and teachers to know warning signs of students who actually are a threat and funding hospital based violence prevention

Plus getting communities most impacted and traumatized by daily gun violence more mental health resources this could be done through federal block grants.

Hospital based violence intervention works by stopping retaliation by getting the loved ones of someone who was shot a therapist and trusted community leaders in the room to support the family and stop retaliation.
read more here journals.lww.com/jtrauma/Citati…

A strong predictor of violence is also unemployment we need to fund the best programs working with communities most impacted by gun violence to help those most at risk to get them the resources they need to break the cycle of trauma, poverty and violence.

I have one nonstarter- We have to stop acting like someone being mentally Ill automatically means they are going to kill people. As mentioned before being mentally ill makes you way more likely to hurt yourself than someone else.

I fear if done poorly in a nightmare situation- kids go to their school counselor and say they have anxiety or are depressed and then are treated like a potential mass shooter. That must be prevented.

Notice how none of the above are gun laws? It’s because while I see gun laws as part of the solution they are just that- part of the solution. We will never reduce gun violence if we don’t also address why someone picks up a gun in the first place.

I am so tired of seeing shooting after shooting happen and the cycle of debate and inaction continues. We all want this madness to end so this is me saying I’m willing to do my part and work together because I’m interested in ending this not debating it.

There are obviously many things we all disagree on but as we saw this summer with the bipartisan safer communities act- bipartisan action on gun violence is possible. I can respect those who don’t agree with me but I can’t accept there’s nothing we can do.

Until we make our respond to these shooting action and not debate nothing with change. If you are a house republican interested in working on this in good faith either privately or publicly my DMs are open.

Sources

2/3 of gun deaths are suicides
politifact.com/factchecks/201…

Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive stat
hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/m…

Guns are the most lethal method of suicide but not the most common

hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magaz…

Sources part 2:

Where do people die from suicide:
hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/b…

Sepsis stat: efsgv.org/learn/learn-mo…

Kids and MH cdc.gov/childrensmenta…

Sources 3:
Study on risk factors for violence

dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/otsa/file…

Sorry for typos I’m on my phone but you get the point.