When a Semi-Automatic Response Won’t Do

Today’s headlines are full of news about the most recent school shooting. As a parent, this is terrifying. As a pediatrician, it’s both incredibly sad and frustrating. I’ve dedicated my life to keeping kids healthy. It’s always hard when children die: when entire communities grieve the loss of that child’s spark and potential. Sometimes it’s disease that is responsible – but much more often it is preventable accidents.

Schools should be safe places. Yet, there’ve been 74 school shootings since the horrors at Sandy Hook. As a nation, we’re averaging over a shooting per school week. During the evacuation of Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Ore., authorities found another student with a gun in the school. This gun wasn’t related to the shooting. But, one has to ask: why in the world are students bringing guns to school? And how do they get them?

In a country with our enormous resources we should all be shocked that homicide remains the second leading cause of death for all children aged 1-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Black teens are in an even more precarious place – with homicide being the leading cause of death for black kids aged 15-24.

I have no interest in politics when it comes to the safety of children, only common sense and responsibility. I have no desire to hunt, nor do I care to take away everyone’s reasonable weapons. But no one needs a massive magazine. I wish I could live in a world where the only magazine my kids had to learn about had pictures of Beyonce and Justin Bieber.  But I don’t and I have to be a realist in addition to a dreamer.

So, I have a dream.

In my dream, children are safe in their schools. Kids aren’t exposed to guns there.  There are mental health resources available to those who need them – and they are easily utilized. Every child has a pediatrician, and scheduled check-ups so that mental health issues can be detected early and treated and so that we pediatricians can help level the playing field for parental education. All kids have the same opportunities – for education, for extracurricular activities, and, yes – for food and shelter.

And I understand reality – so in our home we sometimes ask our kids (girl, 9 and boy, 6) about guns. We recently asked them again: “what would you do if you found a gun?” Our son doesn’t understand the difference fully (nor is he expected to) between play guns and serious weaponry so I worry that he would play with it… But he’d give it to his teacher (I think he has a crush on her). So that’s guns 1, parents 0 because he needs to leave it on the ground so he doesn’t blow away his class by accident… Our daughter would not touch it and would tell a grown up. She learned from our panic attack at last request when she would have thrown it away…so as highly educated and passionate individuals we’re only batting .500.

Please keep your reasonable guns locked and empty. Please talk to your kids. Please teach responsibility. And please help to create a world where we can still raise dreamers.

#SOS: Sick of Shootings

It’s beginning to seem as though I hear of at least one shooting daily. I don’t want to sound like a broken record – I wrote about gun safety just last month – but this is a scourge on our youth.

Gun violence in US

According to JustFacts, in 2008, the U.S. population was approximately 307 million. Production data from firearm manufacturers suggests that in 2010, 300 million firearms were owned by U.S. civilians. In 2013, there were 365 mass shootings – this is one mass shooting EACH day.

In a country with our enormous resources we should all be shocked that homicide remains the second leading cause of death for all children aged 1-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Black teens are in an even more precarious place – with homicide being the leading cause of death for black kids aged 15-24.

We need to come together and fix it.

It will take hard work from many sources. Parents – take the lead! Talk to your pediatrician about resources. Keep your kids safe and educated about guns, violence, bullying – the things that are killing the next generation far too often!

Moms Demand Action Valentine

Join me in creating Valentines for congress, urging them to strengthen our nation’s gun laws. You can find more information on the Moms Demand Action for Gunsense in America. We’ll be making the Valentine’s tonight in the Lonzer household, sending pictures of them to congress through Twitter and Facebook, AND USING THEM AS OUR PROFILE PICTURES ON FACEBOOK for the remainder of February. Please send those pictures to Moms Demand Action, and when you post on FB or Twitter, use the hashtag: #SOS.

Change takes time. Education takes time. Guns take lives.

I have a dream that we can live in a world where children are safe to be dreamers

It’s MLK day.

It’s a day to think about love: “hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”.

It’s a day to think about hope: “we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”.

It’s a day to “have a dream”.

It’s a day to think about children – who embody love, hope and dreams. 

I’m thinking about my kids and all of the responsibility that they represent as I try to teach them to be the very best that they can be: to be a friend to everyone, to not have prejudice, to always think with their big, happy hearts.

I’m also thinking about the children that don’t get a chance to have a dream or live their dreams because their innocent lives are cut short. Sometimes it’s disease that is responsible – but much more often it is preventable accidents.

In a country with our enormous resources we should all be shocked that homicide remains the second leading cause of death for all children aged 1-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Black teens are in an even more precarious place – with homicide being the leading cause of death for black kids aged 15-24.

iStockphoto

So I find myself thinking about guns. The gun used to kill Martin Luther King Jr. The rifle a four-year old found while playing and accidentally used to kill his four-year old cousin. I’m thinking about the anger and grief felt by the parents of these children. I’m thinking about this four-year old boy, and the many other children like him, who will grow up emotionally scarred by these accidents.

I have no interest in politics when it comes to the safety of children, only common sense and responsibility. I have no desire to hunt, nor do I care to take away everyone’s reasonable weapons. But no one needs a massive magazine.

I wish I could live in a world where the only magazine my kids had to learn about had pictures of Beyonce and Justin Bieber.  But I don’t and I have to be a realist in addition to a dreamer.

So, I have a dream.

In my dream, children are safe in their schools. Kids aren’t exposed to guns.  There are mental health resources available to those who need them. Every child has a pediatrician, and scheduled check-ups so that mental health issues can be detected early and treated. All kids have the same opportunities – for education, for extracurricular activities, and, yes – for food and shelter.

And I understand reality – so in between an ice cream cake and cartoon watching, we’ve focused some of our weekend conversation with our kids (girl, 9 and boy, 5) on guns. We asked them: “what would you do if you found a gun?” Both kids responded: “throw it away.” I was pleased that they wouldn’t use it but jumped out of my skin that they would touch it. My spouse and I screamed in unison: “NEVER TOUCH A GUN!” Obviously, we will need further conversation until the consistent answer from both of them is: “tell a grown up.”

Please keep your reasonable guns locked and empty. Please talk to your kids. Please teach responsibility. And please help to create a world where we can still raise dreamers.