Enough is enough. The nation’s leaders must address our gun-violence epidemic | Opinion

My husband was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. At the time, we thought our leaders have to do something, they have to act. And in the immediate aftermath of the shooting in Parkland, Florida’s leaders did. They passed extreme-risk protection orders and raised the age to purchase long guns, such as, rifles to 21 years old.

But it hasn’t been enough. We need more action in states and at the federal level to address gun violence.

Last year, President Biden signed the first federal legislation in almost 30 years to address gun violence. It’s another step forward, but gun violence is rising. We know there are common-sense solutions to address it, like passing universal background checks and extreme-risk protection laws on the federal level. But too many lawmakers won’t step up and do what’s right.

In 2021, nearly 50,000 Americans lost their lives to gun violence. When will enough be enough for these lawmakers?

National leaders act when there are concerns about safety with other areas of Americans’ lives. Why not guns?

No one has been hurt, but federal authorities are investigating an unusual cluster of airline incidents. According to The Washington Post, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration said on Feb. 14 that, “he would convene an industry safety summit, direct a fresh review of internal incident data and take steps to improve collaboration inside his agency after a recent spate of near-misses involving airliners.”

How ironic that this statement was made on exactly five years after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the worst high school shooting in our country. The shooting where my husband was murdered. Although I applaud these efforts to make our airways safer, I also urge lawmakers to demand the same kind of review and investigation into gun violence in our country, where we’re losing more than 100 people a day to this scourge.

How do some leaders claim they are pro-life, yet vote against or block bills to address preventable gun violence? All lives should be protected, and our government should be investigating how we can solve this epidemic unique to our country.

If we don’t begin the conversation and collect data on why so many people die by gun violence, we will never be able to end this epidemic. Many factors contribute to the increase in gun violence in our country, and a data-driven team must be created to find solutions that can be implemented to save our communities.

It is no longer safe to go to school, the movies, the mall, the grocery store, places of worship or even drive on the highway. We keep saying enough is enough, but clearly that is not true.

As a society, we seem to accept gun violence as the norm. However, I refuse to accept this. We, and the victims of gun violence, deserve better — and we must demand it.

Just as the people who were affected by the near hits of the airline incidents, the victims of gun violence deserve an industry safety summit, a review of incident data and steps to improve collaboration among agencies to reduce deaths.

Our leaders are failing, We must speak up to demand a change, and say: “We don’t accept this.”

Debra Hixon is the wife of Chris Hixon who was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.