John—

While details are still emerging after yesterday’s horrific mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia—two children and two adults are dead, with at least nine more injured—there are some things we know for certain.

We know that Georgia has terrible gun laws. It consistently earns an F on our Annual Gun Law Scorecard and has a gun death rate 39% above the national average. 

We know that school shootings, like all mass shootings, are a uniquely American problem. The US has 57 times as many school shootings as the other major industrialized nations combined.

And we know that even for the children and educators who escaped without physical harm yesterday, there will still be scars that will affect their lives for many years to come. In fact, the trauma of a school shooting casts a wide shadow, damaging the well-being of an entire community.

Policy solutions like extreme risk protection orders, child access prevention laws, and raising the minimum age to purchase a gun are essential strategies to prevent school shootings. But we also need to focus on increasing resources to support the communities that face these traumatic events, particularly young people:

• Ensuring access to sustainable, quality mental health care.
• Establishing trauma-informed schools that can identify high-risk youth and divert them from violence.
• Funding victim compensation programs that create easy access to additional support services, alleviating the increased financial burden shooting survivors endure.
• Providing opportunities for survivors of school shootings to connect with each other as a source of empathy, support, and advice.

The people whose lives were uprooted by yesterday’s shooting at Apalachee High, and everyone impacted by America’s gun violence crisis, need far more than thoughts and prayers—they need action from our leaders, and they need tangible support in their communities.

That’s what we’re working for for day-in and day-out here at GIFFORDS Law Center. Can you chip in today to help us keep up the fight?

$10 $25 $50 $100 $250

Gratefully,
Kelly

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Kelly Drane
Research Director
GIFFORDS Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence