Mark Bennett: Public health group offers cities a guidebook for handling the once unthinkable

Jun. 4—Community-oriented topics fill the agenda of this weekend's U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Reno, Nevada.

They'll discuss ways to implement funds from the federal infrastructure law and American Rescue Plan Act in their cities, address mental health problems and climate change, understand cryptocurrency, offer more affordable housing and improve public safety. Mayors from across the county will share information about public projects that have worked in small, midsize and big towns.

Essentials. Nuts and bolts stuff.

This morning, Sarah Peck will share information with the gathered mayors that once seemed unimaginable. Sadly, it's become essential, too.

Peck will explain the "Mass Shooting Protocol and Playbook: A Resource for U.S. Mayors and City Managers."

"Most mayors don't think about how they would respond to a mass shooting until one happens," said Peck, director of UnitedOnGuns, a nonpartisan initiative of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. "And then they don't realize the magnitude their role has."

She spoke in a phone interview early Friday morning from Reno on the eve of her presentation to the mayors today. Given the recent events, Peck expects a large number of the 170-plus mayors at the annual meeting to attend her session.

UnitedOnGuns prepared the protocols for handling the aftermath of a mass shooting. The Institute also focuses on public health issues such as childhood obesity and tobacco control.

Peck and researchers at the initiative created the "Mass Shooting Protocol" for city leaders after interviews in 2020 and 2021 with mayors, city staffers, police chiefs, city attorneys, FBI agents and Red Cross workers from six communities that had experienced multiple-victim shootings — Orlando, Fla.; Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Parkland, Fla.; and San Bernardino, Calif.

The dreadful cycle of violence has continued since those atrocities. So has Congress' inaction.

Just before their Reno meeting, the U.S. Conference of Mayors reissued a plea Thursday for Congress to approve two pending bills that would require background checks for gun sales and extend the review period for background checks. The mayors first issued that plea in 2019 after the mass killings in El Paso and Dayton. Both bills stalled in the U.S. Senate, blocked by Republicans. The mayors repeated the same bipartisan demand for congressional action this week, following the latest mass shootings.

An 18-year-old with an assault weapon killed 19 children and two teachers on May 31 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Another 18-year-old gunman killed 10 people May 14 in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket.

In their statement, the mayors said "enough is enough. We refuse to allow the passage of time to relieve the pressure on Congress to act. Unless our elected officials in Washington finally take this crisis seriously, this plague will soon hit another American city and more precious lives will be lost.

"There is no question that we can reduce gun violence in America without infringing on people's rights," they continued. "This should not require courage, but simply a willingness to open one's eyes to the carnage taking place every day."

A total of 250 mayors from both major political parties signed the plea, including five from Indiana. Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett wasn't among those. "I am not a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors due to their focus on large cities and significant involvement in social issues," Bennett said via email Thursday afternoon.

Peck's presentation today will describe steps necessary in both the first 24 hours after a mass shooting and beyond. The publication, available free online at unitedonguns.org/protocol/, offers guidance for mayors on coordinating communications, emergency management, services for victims and families, law enforcement, donations, community partnerships, legal issues, commemorations and mental health. Case studies of the six cities include firsthand information from mayors, city workers, first responders and relief groups.

There's also advice on handling the awful circumstances, like immediately setting up secured family unification centers and providing prompt death notifications, as well as long-term family assistance centers offering legal help, mental health resources and victims compensation experts. Mayors must address the news media and provide accurate information in a timely, responsible manner. Trauma treatment is needed for families, but also first responders, witnesses, residents in general, journalists and others.

"That's why it's so important for mayors to prepare," Peck said. "When this happens, they're the ones that are called to respond."

The protocols focus on public health, not politics, Peck emphasized. They deal with the realities of 21st-century America.

"Until we [as a country] figure out how to come together to end mass shootings, mayors are going to respond to them," Peck said. "We've been urging Congress to act, but it's really unclear to me if legislative solutions are forthcoming."

President Biden called for congressional action on Thursday to restrict access to assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, and if not, to then prevent people with mental illness from owning firearms and raise the minimum age for assault weapons purchases from 18 to 21. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators also is trying to reach a compromise on gun-violence measures.

Public education on responsible gun ownership and its risks is also vital, Peck said. Gun deaths also occur in incidents related to gangs, drug abuse and crime. Nearly two-thirds of gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides, she explained, and the presence of a gun a household increases the likelihood of a suicide, so UnitedOnGuns advocates for safe-storage measures.

"The greatest thing that federal and state governments could do right now is to do what they did decades ago to tell the public about the dangers of smoking," Peck said.

Mass shootings have become a traumatic element of the nation's overall gun violence problem.

It's hard to fathom we've come to the point that mayors, from small and large towns alike, need a handbook on dealing with mass shootings.

When asked if she's optimistic that a day is coming when those guidelines won't be necessary, Peck said, "God willing."

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.