By State Representative Viola Davis (D-Stone Mountain)

(513 words)

This morning, while fixing my mother a cup of coffee, she asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks: "Can we have a moratorium on senseless shootings?"

At first, I smiled and gave a slight laugh. Then I stopped and thought: Wouldn't that be wonderful?

As we watched the morning news on different channels, we repeatedly saw one story after another involving shootings, young people, grieving families and communities trying to understand how another life had been lost. Imagine if we collectively decided no more. No more settling arguments with guns. No more disagreements turning into funerals. No more allowing bullying, harassment, anger, retaliation or social-media conflicts to escalate into gunfire.

What happened to problem resolution, sitting down and talking through disagreement, walking away, mediation, mentorship and forgiveness? What happened to teaching our children that real strength sometimes means having enough self-control not to retaliate?

As a legislator, I understand that there is no single piece of legislation that can eliminate senseless shootings. Laws have an important role to play. So do law enforcement, our courts and responsible gun ownership. But government cannot do this work alone. A law cannot replace a parent. A police officer cannot replace a mentor. A courtroom cannot replace a caring teacher. No prison sentence can bring someone's child back home. We must address what happens before the trigger is pulled.

Too often, violence is the final chapter of a story that started much earlier-with bullying, harassment, isolation, hopelessness, untreated anger or a disagreement that spiraled out of control.

If we are serious about stopping senseless shootings, we must become equally serious about creating environments where our children can thrive. That means strengthening conflict-resolution programs in schools, mentoring young people, confronting bullying and harassment and expanding opportunities for education, employment, recreation, mental wellness and positive community engagement. We must teach our children that not every disagreement requires a confrontation, and not every confrontation requires retaliation. Most importantly, we must teach them that no disagreement should ever end with a funeral.

Preventing senseless shootings should not belong to Democrats or Republicans. It belongs to all of us-parents, grandparents, students, teachers, coaches, faith leaders, law enforcement, community organizations, responsible gun owners and elected officials. We all can agree that our children deserve to come home alive.

The cost of senseless shootings is not measured only in crime statistics. It is measured in empty chairs around dinner tables, birthdays and graduations that will never be celebrated, dreams that will never be fulfilled and families forever changed.

My mother's question remains with me: "Can we have a moratorium on senseless shootings?"

Maybe we cannot declare such a moratorium through legislation alone. But we can declare one through our collective conscience. We can choose dialogue over destruction, de-escalation over retaliation, respect over ridicule, mentorship over abandonment and opportunity over homelessness. Most importantly, we can teach another generation to choose problem resolution over pulling a trigger.

My mother asked the question. Now it is up to all of us to answer it and move our communities from surviving to thriving.

*Editor's note: Rep. Davis has provided a graphic included below.

Representative Viola Davis represents the citizens of District 87, which includes a portion of DeKalb County. She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and currently serves on the Defense & Veterans Affairs, Health, Insurance, Natural Resources & Environment and Urban Affairs committees

###

The views expressed above and information shared are those of the author.