I will not write about what happened Sandy Hook. I have no words to express my deep sadness and grief for the victims and their families. However as a blogger I have the opportunity – responsibility – to share the information I’ve been able to gather about how to express your opinion, donate your time and money, or send your messages of sympathy and caring.
Contact your congressman or woman. WRITE a letter. Do not email or call – it’s not as effective. Focus your request on banning assault weapons, automatic weapons, sniper rifles and high capacity ammunition clips. These weapons are used solely for the purpose of killing, whether offensively or defensively. Ask to have the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons reinstated – it was abolished in 2004.
Steve Barton, a shooting survivor of the Aurora, Colorado massacre, has this to say about what happened in Sandy Hook. Please, listen to him. Don’t let this moment pass without doing something to advocate for tighter restrictions and regulations on gun ownership and use.
If you also believe that mental illness is a critical part of this problem, go to the National Institute of Mental Health to gather information. And if you know someone who you believe could be a danger to him or herself or others, don’t wait for something to happen – find a way to intervene. Insist they get help, and if they won’t, alert others about your concerns. DO NOT HESITATE.
Read this heartbreaking blog post by the mother of a child with severe emotional problems to understand what it might have been like to be Adam Lanza’s mother.
Sign these petitions:
Build an accessible federally funded mental health care system
White House Petition on Gun Control
Petition to Appoint Mayor Michael Bloomberg as President Obama’s Gun Safety Deputy
Moms Rising Gun Control Petition
Here is what the National Rifle Association had to say when I called to ask them for a statement about the massacre in Sandy Hook:
“Until the facts are known, the NRA will not have any comment.”
Not a word of concern, care or sympathy.
Donate your time or money to these organizations:
Read this article, written by an Israeli citizen living in the United States. Let the number of massacres that have occurred just this year sink in, even as you consider the author’s comments on terrorism from outside our borders vs. inside.
Help the families of Sandy Hook, whether by sending a note of condolence or by donating to a local organization dedicated to helping during this time of crisis:
Sandy Hook PTA
12 DICKENSON DR
SANDY HOOK, CT 06482
Newtown Youth and Family Services
Thanks to many of my Facebook friends for providing some of the information I’ve shared in this post. Social media is a powerful tool for change and influence. Let’s use it to make our country safer for our children. NO citizen should die of wounds inflicted by assault weapons – especially not children.
More reading on this topic:
- Gun Control is a Parenting Issue – Lisa Belkin on the Huffington Post
- Ten Small Things I Can Do – Connie MacLeod
- Thoughts on Yet Another Senseless Tragedy – After the Kids Leave
- Hope for Humanity Rests With the Individual- The Furflies
- On Love, On Silence, On Speaking Our Minds – Daily Plate of Crazy
- Parents, it’s Up to Us to Stop Gun Violence -Yvonne Condes on MomsLA
- After Newtown – Holding Them Close - SoCal Mom
- Searching for a Child – Searching for an Answer – Relocation the Blog
- Of Guns and Sleeping Elephants – After the Kids Leave
- Newtown Old News – Darryle Pollack
- Monday Morning After Connecticut – Momfaze
- Gun Control Would Not Have Prevented Sandy Hook – resoulin’ My Dancing Shoes
- Bullet Points or Me and a Gun - The 3 R’s Blog
- Countdown to the End of the World – Ronna Benjamin on Betterafter50.com
- A Call for Action – The Giggling Trucker’s Wife
- Solve for X – Ambling and Rambling
- What They Should Have - The Boomer Rants
- Guns Do Kill People – Style Substance Soul
- Do Something – Write Mind Open Heart
- Why I Believe We Are Bigger Than Our Weapons – Donna Highfill
- Wordlessness, Action, and the Sandy Hook Tipping Point - The Midlife Second Wife
- A Broken Heart – The Kids are Grown, Now What?
- When Evil Shadows Good - Books Is Wonderful
- Knowing That No Sense Can Be Made of the Newtown Tragedy – Midlife Bloggers
- Dirge – Life With the Campbells
- It’s Up to Us to Stop the Violence – Your Family Viewer
Thank you for
this, Sharon.
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What a great job you’ve done in putting together all these actions. Most grateful. Thanks!
Andi
Andi Brown recently posted..Another sample of Animal Cracker, my comic novel set in an animal shelter
Some good tips here.
I have long pushed on the mental health/mental illness angle. Up to 40% of all Americans will have a serious mental illness during their lives. MOST people do not know the signs that someone who has always been “quirky” is showing signs of becoming dangerously ill. We all need to educate ourselves, and press for better education of the public as a whole, and RESOURCES. And an end to stigma.
In part, people are afraid to seek help for mental illness, because they don’t want to be labeled weak or “crazy.” Why is it any different from getting regular care for nearsightedness or diabetes?
Gun control needs to be part of the discussion. As a society, we have a vested interest in seeing that those who are dangerous – criminals and the mentally ill – cannot easily obtain weapons that could hurt large numbers of people. Just like we take the car keys away from Grandpa when he can no longer drive safely. Can we prevent ALL the possible incidents of harm to the innocent? Of course not, but we could certainly reduce the carnage.
I hope and pray that this is one time we don’t simply shake our collective heads and do nothing – until the next time.
Beverly Diehl recently posted..The Caged Bird Does Not Sing #domesticviolence
I completely agree with your last sentence. We cannot lose the momentum. Those children deserve more than that.
We all need to grieve and THEN take action.Thank you for your suggestions.
I am on it.
God bless all the little children who will not see Xmas …..
Thanks Sharon!! I like the fact that you have given us something to do tphelp ban assault weapons. How much more of a wake up call do we need and at what expense???
Thank you for this wonderful entry. One of the members of a new FB group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/letsovercomeviolenceeverywhere posted this. Your suggestions are spot on and will give many of us a place to start. LOVE is the only way, but there are many ways to show love.
Love is important, but so is activism. We must continue to work towards the goal of tighter gun control and mental health access for all.
[...] fellow blogger friend, Sharon Greenthal, posted a blog this morning, The Sandy Hook Massacre and Gun Control: What You Can Do To Help . Please read it and do whatever you can. It is far past time to stop this [...]
[...] The Sandy Hook Massacre and Gun Control (EmptyHouseFullMind.com) [...]
Sharon, your post is so full of ideas, complete with clickable links, for anyone at any level of interest to do something. I reposted it on FB and Twitter. You’ve done a real service. I plan to write an actual letter to my representatives. Thank you.
Lynne Spreen recently posted..Midlife Crisis is a Hoax, and Other Good News about Your Middle-Aged Brain
I felt it was more important to share these resources than add my voice to the already millions of eloquent and anguished that are out there.
I found this post via Lynne. I’ve been feeling like I needed to do something, but couldn’t figure out what to do. Now I have a plan of action. Thanks for the info.
Ally Bean recently posted..Back When TV Was Truly Refined
I’m so glad I could help you find a way to do something. Feeling helpless at times like these is the worst.
[...] The Sandy Hook Massacre and Gun Control (EmptyHouseFullMind.com) [...]
Thank you for the links Sharon. We all must act for change before something like this happens again.
Raquel recently posted..A Day of Silence for Sandy Hook
Thank you, Sharon — you did a real service. I will share this.
Lois Alter Mark recently posted..Four Must-Read Books of the Year!
Thanks Lois. I hope others will find a way to help or alleviate their sorrow through these websites.
Thanks Sharon. Once we stop wringing our hands and drying our eyes, or in other words, get over the initial shock and horror, we want to roll up our sleeves and get after efforts to initiate change or help in any way we can, and you’ve shared many specific ways to do both.
Barbara recently posted..at the park
Excellent research and action. Thanks Sharon
Thanks you for taking the time to put together all these resources. It is just what I needed. I will share this.
[...] My fellow blogger, Sharon Greenthal, has compiled a detailed list of resources so you can take action. Read her post and do something. [...]
Thank you, Sharon, for taking action. I have stayed too quiet on this topic for fear of ostracizing readers. I am ashamed to admit that fact. I join you, now, in doing something that might just save lives.
Donna Highfill recently posted..All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire
It was a contentious topic for some bloggers, indeed. Some felt it would be capitalizing on a tragedy to drive traffic, which I could see happening – but it’s too important to let pass. Your intelligent voice is always one to be heard, Donna.
[...] thoughts of some GenFab bloggers. Sharon Greenthal, for example, whom I admire and respect, wrote a useful post filled with resources about what you can do to become part of the change we want to see in the [...]
Sharon, thank you for getting the ball rolling on this. I’m hopeful that our collective voices will make a difference…bloggers can talk about being “influencers,” but if we can’t wield influence where it matters most, then I just don’t know…See? Wordless again.
Marci Rich recently posted..Wordlessness, Action, and the Sandy Hook Tipping Point
It’s difficult to come up with words that are any different from those have already been used. Let’s just keep talking.
[...] With public outrage at its zenith, with strength in numbers, now is the time to make our voices heard. My fellow blogger, Sharon Hodor Greenthal, has provided ways you can help in this post. [...]
Namaste, Sharon. Thank you for these (and for including my post here).
Lori Lavender Luz recently posted..Take cover
Your post gave a helpful way to alleviate the stress of these difficult days.
[...] The Sandy Hook Massacre and Gun Control (EmptyHouseFullMind.com) [...]
Agreed that the best decisions made are the ones which are researched first. Good call!
Catalina recently posted..Gun Control, Mental Health Reform, I Don’t Know…
[...] has a good list of resources for both mental illness and gun law advocacy in a recent blog on her Empty House, Full mind blog about the Sandy Hook [...]
Seeing as how this is seems to be incredibly biased, I would like to throw a little bit of insight to the other side of this.
Most of the people that are against the ban aren’t in favor of killing children. They are opposed to the idea of the government taking away yet another right they have.
Second off, many people, including myself, aren’t too keen on the idea of the government telling us we can’t own fire arms equal to that of their own strength. Seriously, would you agree to a fight with someone where you get a knife and they get a gun?
And lastly, The term “Assaualt” weapon was a term coined by anti-gun activists to scare the public into agreeing with them because they know most people don’t know any better. 99.5% of gun crimes are committed with illegal weapons… not registered fire arms. Banning them will only make the proliferation of said weapons an even more profitable business.
Learn to read and look into the facts of something before you start some online campaign. Not to mention… before the mass media got a hold of the story, the reports had nothing to do with an ar-15 model rifle, but of a shotgun.
I don’t need to “learn to read,” I am constantly reading and learning. I have my admittedly “biased” opinion and shared it on my blog. Thank you for sharing your opinion.
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article.
I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful info.
Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely return.
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