Growing up in the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, I could only dream and imagine about how different life in the United States would be. Yet, 20 years later in Oakland, it feels almost as violent as the warzone my family and I tried to escape.
It has been about one year since seven students were killed in a deadly massacre at Oikos University in Oakland and the shooting involving 26 innocent lives at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. that both shook our nation to its very core. Thirty-three lives were stripped from this Earth because of senseless, twisted acts of violence.
Every year, more than 30,000 people are killed in the U.S. from firearms, and it comes at a cost of billions of dollars in health expenditures. The issues surrounding gun violence, a leading cause of preventable death, are complex and deeply rooted, which is why we must take a comprehensive public health approach to reducing its menace on society.
Despite the clear horror of these events and demand for action from the public, Congress has still failed to move forward on comprehensive gun violence legislation. Each passing day that Congress delays action, more communities bear witness to the endless episodes of gun violence. This ugly reality will continue to intrude upon our communities across the country, including our very own Alameda County, unless meaningful action is taken by our lawmakers.
There are several critical pieces to any legislation that Congress must pass in order to reduce the staggering toll of gun violence and ensure the safety of our community.
First, our legislators must ensure that federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have adequate and unrestricted funding to conduct research on the causes of injury and deaths from firearms, as well as how to prevent these tragedies. They must also ensure there is adequate data available to design targeted gun violence prevention strategies. We can achieve this through a nationwide expansion of the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System, a state-based violent-death-prevention tool that links data from public health, law enforcement, medical examiners and social service agencies to create a more complete picture of the circumstances surrounding violent death.
Second, our safety also depends on the passage of life-saving measures that would ban the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and mandate background checks for all gun purchases. These measures enjoy broad appeal among Americans. According to a recent Gallup poll, 91 percent of Americans favor background checks.
Additionally, state, local and community-based behavioral health systems must also have the resources they need to provide much-needed mental health treatment to those in need. About 82 percent of Americans support increased funding for mental health services for youth, according to a recent Gallup poll. Unfortunately, funding at the federal and state levels for mental health continues to be threatened by cuts. The Affordable Care Act provides comprehensive coverage for mental health and substance use disorder services as part of its Essential Health Benefits, but we must still ensure funding at the federal and state levels are not jeopardized.
Our school policies must also promote a positive school climate to support the social, emotional and learning needs of all students to maintain a safe environment. To achieve this, schools and communities need resources and support for comprehensive measures in school-based prevention, early intervention strategies and preparedness initiatives to prevent gun violence and prepare our communities and schools in the event of an emergency.
As an advocate for public health in Alameda County, I am pleased to see that President Obama has included many of these provisions in his plan to reduce gun violence. Now it is time for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and other representatives to push Congress to act now. I cannot afford to wait. Nor can we all afford to rely on the status quo and still assume that our nation’s children are safe in school, on our city streets or in our homes. It is time we place public health before political interests and recognize that this effort will require the great resolve and political will on behalf of our nation’s leaders.
The violence that takes place in Oakland every single day batters our communities and has everything to do with public health. Just recently, Gloria Crowell, District 4 commissioner representing Supervisor Nate Miley on the Alameda County Public Health Commission, highlighted the need for renewing our county’s level of commitment and effort to address the issue. Not too long ago, Supervisor Miley brought together police and safety officers, along with other community organizations in order to collaborate on how to most effectively solve our community’s gun violence and public health crisis. Such efforts should be applauded and expanded upon.
Now is the time to work together to ensure evidence-based public health principles are at the heart of all our efforts to reduce gun violence-related injury and death, as it is both an imperative and a national priority to ensure the safety of our nations’ rich and valued diversity.
Ken Russell Coelho and Michael D. Campbell are commissioners on the Alameda County Public Health Commission