My Point of View by Robin Brown

When I got home from work this afternoon, I turned on the news, as is my routine, and watched the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen report yet another school shooting. Not a mass shooting. Not with an AR-15. But, young lives lost, and families changed forever.

I work in a public high school building and, like my colleagues, I take the safety of my students seriously. But with 14 entrances that can be opened at any time from the inside, people are often able to enter the building, by-passing the security entrance with a smile and a wave to someone walking down the hall. So, like most schools throughout the state, the systems that were designed for quick escape during a fire emergency may not be as ideal for protecting students from intruders with ill intent.

The student walk-outs motivated by the most recent mass shooting have inspired passion and debate. Everyone has an opinion. Students in my classes question and challenge each other as they try to make sense of the laws that rule us — what works and what doesn’t. Friends and family argue about the best way to protect themselves from those who want to do harm. People that I don’t even know approach me with statements like, “If we only enforced current laws…”

So I listen and wonder why, given so much conversation, we have not yet figured out how to protect our society from gun violence. I wonder why we are all so far apart. Why are we unable to agree on the core problems, let alone the solutions? Why can’t we get past our entrenched beliefs — so much so that voices are raised, ears are closed and we get lost in argument.

I believe that solution-based conversations (assuming we think there is a problem) might be more successful if we could agree on a few key guidelines for communication. I suggest the following:

• If we are going to quote the Second Amendment, we quote the entire Second Amendment. “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

• We agree to use reliable sources when researching and quoting data, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and we refrain from exaggeration and hyperbole when making a point.

• We respect the fact that we live in an area where many families bond over the tradition of hunting together and have done so for multiple generations.

• We empathize with those who feel they need to carry a gun to protect themselves and their family.

• We acknowledge the Supreme Court has established that “assault” rifles can be regulated.

• In all we say and do, we remember that lives have been lost and families have been forever changed due to gun violence.

These are suggestions meant to start the civil conversation that must happen if we want to see a reduction in gun violence. We must begin with kindness, respect and honesty.

For example, in full disclosure, I was a member of the NRA and received NRA endorsement and an A+ rating when I served in the Minnesota House of Representatives. I own multiple hand guns and long guns. I enjoy target shooting and I need a reliable gun to exterminate disease ridden varmints on the farm. I have shot an AR-15 and prefer shooting an AR-15 to a 12 gauge any day of the week. But I don’t need an AR-15. And, by the way, I hate being told what I can or can’t do.

Where am I going with this? I believe we need to do something to reduce gun violence in the U.S. We need to find a way to prevent the horrible mass shootings that have increased over just a few years. We need to make students safe in our schools. We need to discuss what we value most and consider what has worked in cities across the U.S. as well as in other parts of the world.

We need to acknowledge our own personal obstacles to change. I personally do not fear for my safety, that the government is going to take my guns away or that the government will overstep the boundaries of the Second Amendment. I simply and sadly hate being told what to do. It’s a flaw, I know.

But if I can recognize my own flaws and biases, maybe I can set them aside long enough to be an honest part of the conversation that must happen if we want to gain any traction in our efforts to protect our society from further gun violence.

Maybe I can be a part of the solution. Maybe you can, too.

Robin Brown is a former DFL District 27A representative.