This article was updated on May 4th, 2023, to anonymize a source.

On April 15th, 2023, there were seven mass shooting in the United States; two were in New Jersey, and one each in Alabama, Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Kentucky. This shows that mass shootings continue to plague the country.

On that same day LC Voices emailed the gun control organization called Gifford’s. An employee replied and referred Voices to an article on their website about mass shootings. When there was a gun control law in effect it reduced mass shootings by 70 percent, according to the article.  According to an article in CQ Researcher, Public support for gun control increased a lot in 2022, compared to 52 percent the year before. This shows that the public is definitely getting more serious about preventing mass shootings.

Tom O’Connor is a cofounder of a group called Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership. He wrote in CQ Researcher he supports several reforms.  He wants to require background checks for all gun sales. He also wants to require safe storage (so children cannot access guns). This means they will be locked in a safe. He also wants to increase the age limit to 21 for all gun sales. O’Connor also supports regulating military style weapons and high-capacity magazines the same way machine guns are regulated. In addition, he wants all guns to have a traceable serial number. His final two suggestions are to provide funding for programs to prevent violence, and to do research on ways to prevent gun violence.

Mel Martin of Gun Sense Vermont had this to say about specific solutions: “A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines is the most obvious solution. Even though this ban would not solve everything, it would reduce the amount of mass shootings.”

LC Voices also spoke with Advisor Emily North and a student who wished to remain anonymous. North said, “To prevent mass shootings we need better gun control.”

The student said, “The way we can mitigate these dangers is by enforcing universal background checks on a federal level that can be done by a federal agency. Another way is to require mental health screenings by a professional that is vetted by the government every so often, to make sure there are not mental health concerns.”

Another very reputable organization is Gifford’s. Named after Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (who survived a mass shooting in 2011) the organization was founded to combat gun violence. According to Giffords.org, “Mass shootings are a uniquely American epidemic. These all too frequent tragedies have created a culture of fear in American society.”

Giffords.org argues that the reason why America has so many mass shootings is that few other countries make it as easy to get guns as the US does. Giffords.org tells the story of Telemachus (Tel) Orfanos, who survived the Las Vegas shooting of October 2017. Fifty-eight people died and over 800 were injured, which makes it the most severe mass shooting in modern American history. During the shooting, Orfanos helped others escape. After the shooting he made an agreement with a fellow survivor: if they were ever in a similar situation they would go back and help.

About a year later, Orfanos was out at a restaurant, when another shooter who had a semi-automatic pistol and seven large capacity magazines started shooting. Just like he said, Orfanos helped others get out and then ran back in. Sadly, Orfanos died that night.

As devastating as these tragedies are, fortunately there a multitude of solutions. The first solution according to Gifford’s is “closing the loopholes in our federal background checks system. An estimated 22 percent of US gun owners acquired their most recent firearm without a background check. If we close the loophole it can help ensure that prohibited purchasers (especially individuals with domestic abuse and felony convictions) can’t access these weapons. The next solution is closing loopholes in our domestic violence laws. An analysis of more than 700 mass shootings committed over the past six years revealed that nearly two thirds were related to domestic violence.”