Better Ways to Address the Gun Violence That Threatens Children

Elaine Miller Karas 5/31/2211:55 AM

The world is heartbroken. When the news about Uvalde broke, my daughter called me in tears, grieving for the children and families and worried for her five-year-old daughter still at school. She talked with my granddaughter about ways to keep her safer from “mean people” if they came to her school. As a grandmother, it is heart-wrenching to even think of the need to have such a conversation with my innocent granddaughter.

In the United States, the 19 children murdered in Uvalde now are tragically added to the 4,357 others from the ages of one to 19 who died from gun violence in 2020. Gun violence is now the number-one cause of death of American children, and homicides are the most-common type of gun death among children and teens. While teenagers account for the majority of these deaths, an average of eight children age 12 or under were killed by guns every week in 2020. Black children and teens face especially high rates of gun victimization.¹ As a nation, we are acutely aware of Uvalde, and we also need to be mindful that other American children are dying daily from gun violence.

After every mass shooting, the themes are the same—gun control, the internet, and mental illness—and so is the dialog: How did this happen? Why did he do it? What can we do to stop the subterranean secret web that spews hate adding fuel to disturbed and distorted thinking? While mass shootings grab our attention, gunfire takes the lives of more children and teens every year than the Parkland, Sandy Hook, Uvalde, and Columbine massacres combined.

States with stronger gun laws have lower rates of gun violence, but those who believe gun control infringes on their Second-Amendment rights have thwarted legislation to control guns in many other states. The fact that a person can so easily purchase an assault rifle, a weapon of mass destruction, evidences the power of gun lobbies.

Other prevention strategies must therefore be adopted to help mitigate the impact of childhood trauma, which may be at the core of the development of distorted thinking that leads to violent behavior.

Jane Stevens, the founder of PACES Connection, stated, “Healthy people lead healthy lives and aren’t tempted to harm themselves or others. Healthy people have few or no adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and many positive childhood experiences ... Although we can’t predict if a kid with ACEs will express their toxic stress outwardly in violence to others, turn inward to harm themselves, or, in some cases, do both, we know enough to say that damage will occur to themselves or others.”²

Trauma is experienced in the body, and as such, strategies to reduce the impact of toxic stress are critical. Toxic stress is the prolonged activation of the stress response, with a failure of the body to recover fully. The toxic stress response affects the neuroendocrine-immune network, leading to a prolonged cortisol response. The resultant immune dysregulation, including a persistent inflammatory state, increases children’s risk and frequency of infections. The toxic stress response is believed to play a role in the pathophysiology of depressive disorders, behavioral dysregulation, PTSD, and psychosis.³

In response to the number of children who die from violence yearly, becoming trauma-informed is critical. It is necessary for the survivors of gun violence, as well as for creating an environment recognizing the impact of trauma on every person. Greater knowledge of toxic stress can help us design prevention strategies to help children, parents, and teachers.

I am a senior consultant to Emory University’s SEE Learning Program, a free curriculum for children K-12, inspired by his Holiness the Dalai Lama. SEE Learning conveys a universal, non-sectarian, and science-based approach to bringing ethical development to children worldwide. It includes components of compassion and ethical discernment. This curriculum has been designed by experts in social and emotional learning and in trauma-informed practices. It could help lay a foundation for all children to cultivate well-being that can reduce the impact of toxic stress.

Through the training of teachers, I have spoken to hundreds of educators worldwide about cultivating well-being in children and faculty alike. The last few months have been challenging for many not only in the U.S. but in European countries integrating displaced children from Ukraine into their school systems. We have discussed the biological effects of traumatic experiences and how we can help ourselves and school-age children. Limiting exposure to social media and news has been seen as important, as well as resilience-focused questions (such as “What else is true?” “What or who helps you get through difficult times?” and “What uplifts or nurtures during times of difficulty?”) and assisting with the remembrance of gratitude. This approach helps embody well-being even when one is faced with adversity.

Helping children learn interoceptive awareness – how to read the sensations in the body connected to thoughts and feelings – can help reduce the impact of toxic stress. SEE practice is based upon the Trauma Resource Institute’sCommunity Resiliency Model , which integrates information about how traumatic experiences affect the nervous systemand teaches children and adults how to develop and embody personal resources through in easy-to-learn experiences. Research on this model demonstrated that well-being scores increased at one year after its introduction; also, secondary traumatic stress scores declined, and somatic symptoms decreased. An awareness of body sensations helped people, when overwhelmed, to calm themselves.⁴

Imagine a world in which education about toxic stress and strategies to mitigate its impact on the human condition is available to every child. The SEE Learning Program provides approaches that not only help with the regulation of the nervous system but also with reflection on compassion and ethical thinking that reaches troubled children in a non-judgmental and empathic way. When we cultivate compassion and experience our common humanity we can reach out in kindness, not violence.

____________________

References

1. Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. (2022). A Year in Review: 2020 Gun Deaths in the U.S. Available: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/gun-violence-solutions.

2. Stevens, Jane, To prevent mass shootings, don’t bother with a motive; do a forensic ACES Investigation, 5/18/22, https://acestoohigh.com/2022/05/18/to-prevent-mass-shootings-dont-bothe….

3. Franke H. A. (2014). Toxic Stress: Effects, Prevention and Treatment. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 1(3), 390–402. https://doi.org/10.3390/children1030390

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Frank Sterle Jr.Member

@Elaine Miller Karas posted:
We have learned that adversity is not destiny. Many of us attracted to the work of mitigating the impact of ACES have higher Ace Scores. There is indeed no intent to pathologize individuals who have inspite of child abuse, poverty, structural racism, violence, etc...have experienced unspeakable hardships yet lead healthy, meaningful lives and do not harm others. Jane Stevens is a leader in not pathologizing others as a result of adverse childhood experiences. She has been a beaming light in bringing forth information to the world that positive childhood experiences can and does reduce the impact of adversity. Dr. Christina Bethell from John Hopkins University highlights in her seminal study published in JAMA in 2019, "Joint assessment of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) and ACEs may better target needs and interventions and enable a focus on building strengths to promote well-being. Findings support prioritizing possibilities to foster safe, stable nurturing relationships for children that consider the health outcomes of positive experiences."

Currently the pharmaceutical industry profits from sedating and/or concealing ACE-trauma's SYMPTOMS via tranquilizers and/or antidepressants. And I wouldn’t be surprised if industry representatives had a significant-enough say in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual’s original composition and continue to influence its revisions/updates.

Likely only a small percentage of physicians are integrating ACE-trauma science into the diagnoses and (usually chemical) treatments of their patients. The pharmaceutical industry profits, of course, from the continual sedation and/or concealment of ACE-trauma's SYMPTOMS via tranquilizers and/or antidepressants.

Also, I don't believe it's just coincidental that the only two health professions’ appointments for which Canadians are fully covered by the public plan are the two readily pharmaceutical-prescribing psychiatry and general practitioner health professions? Such non-Big-Pharma-benefiting health specialists as counsellors, therapists and naturopaths (etcetera) are not covered a red cent.

For me, the $150-$200+ per hour psychotherapy fee is for a transaction for which there’s only one party that is always a winner — the therapist’s bank account.

6/4/222:25 PM

Frank Sterle Jr.Member

@Daniel Marlowe posted:
... This particular political Party (Republicans) ... tout "evil in the world" and then lay responsibility on ways to control the problem with more "mental health" and then say nothing more about the implementation. This particular Party (Republicans) seek to preserve the status quo of the systematic problem of guns in this Country (among other matters such as systemic racism). It all has to do with money and power and this political Party looks the other way at the slaughter of our children and others who do not support their moral standards or their rhetoric that maintains the status quo. ...

You're quite right. But it gets even worse:

Just hours after the mass slaughter, right-wing radio-talk-show host Lars Larson was already defending the gun industry. He (or his superiors, if he has any) even continued broadcasting ads, which are in his voice thus likely making him extra money, selling the services of a business that assists people in accessing gun ownership that has been denied them by government regulations. As one who believes in Jesus' unmistakable miracles, this greatly troubles me.

And yet he has the morally-challenged audacity to openly call himself Christian (albeit Evangelical, a denomination known for being generally vocally/actively supportive of Donald Trump’s presidency). Meantime, Republican Big-Gun-Industry-apologist senators and congress representatives, including Cruz, also consider/call themselves Christian. Jesus must be spinning in heaven!

They tend to believe in a similarly-natured Creator; thus they’ve effectively created God’s nature in their own fallible and often-enough angry, vengeful image — especially the part insisting via publicized protest pickets that God hates this or that group of people. Too many of these 'Christians', being vocally very angry and callously cruel, make bad examples of Jesus’s fundamental message of compassion and charity, especially to the young and impressionable.

P.S. When I asked a teachers federation official (in 2017, over the phone) whether there is any such curriculum taught in any of B.C.’s school districts, he immediately replied there is not. When I asked the reason for its absence and whether it may be due to the subject matter being too controversial, he replied with a simple “Yes”. This strongly suggests there are philosophical thus political obstacles to teaching students such crucial life skills as nourishingly parenting one’s child’s developing mind. ... We humans can be a stubborn species, especially when it comes to the schooling of our own young ones.

6/4/221:48 PM

Elaine Miller KarasMember

We have learned that adversity is not destiny. Many of us attracted to the work of mitigating the impact of ACES have higher Ace Scores. There is indeed no intent to pathologize individuals who have inspite of child abuse, poverty, structural racism, violence, etc...have experienced unspeakable hardships yet lead healthy, meaningful lives and do not harm others. Jane Stevens is a leader in not pathologizing others as a result of adverse childhood experiences. She has been a beaming light in bringing forth information to the world that positive childhood experiences can and does reduce the impact of adversity. Dr. Christina Bethell from John Hopkins University highlights in her seminal study published in JAMA in 2019, "Joint assessment of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) and ACEs may better target needs and interventions and enable a focus on building strengths to promote well-being. Findings support prioritizing possibilities to foster safe, stable nurturing relationships for children that consider the health outcomes of positive experiences."

6/4/221:10 PM

Laurie LeitchMember

The statement by Jane Stevens in the above post is concerning. She states: “Healthy people lead healthy lives and aren’t tempted to harm themselves or others. Healthy people have few or no adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and many positive childhood experiences."

I work with lots of individuals with very high ACE scores, from backgrounds that reflect the effects of systemic racism and poverty. These individuals are healthy, contributing members of society and have a depth and resilience that is a testament to their strength and determination. I'm sure that the intent was not to pathologize. Nevertheless, far too many people believe a statement like this. It only serves to perpetuate the barriers they face.

6/1/2212:54 PM

Daniel MarloweMember

I like your take on this matter Frank and how teaching neurodiversity is one way to support wellness and prevention on bloody retaliation. Any measures: SEE learning, using ways to acknowledge and teach neurodiversity, and supporting mental health in our schools are beneficial and necessary. Unfortunately, in the US we have a political Party that likes to focus on the matters not connected to the systemic problem of gun violence and the murdering of children at the hands of those who own AR15 and other assault weapons. This particular political Party (Republicans) are clever in subterfuge by holding focus on open back doors and first response time lags, etc. in order to preserve their agenda and their values and beliefs about guns and freedom. They tout "evil in the world" and then lay responsibility on ways to control the problem with more "mental health" and then say nothing more about the implementation. This particular Party (Republicans) seek to preserve the status quo of the systematic problem of guns in this Country (among other matters such as systemic racism). It all has to do with money and power and this political Party looks the other way at the slaughter of our children and others who do not support their moral standards or their rhetoric that maintains the status quo. And to your point Frank, on the virtues of teaching our children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; this political Party (Republicans) have as their agenda and laid out as precepts on their Republican Platforms to ban the teaching of and ban materials that teach children or mention anything about Sexual Orientation and or Gender Identity. Someone needs to say this because it kills me every time I hear this from the mouths of the Republican Party and see US citizens supporting and voting for these politicians! The blame lays not only on these particular politicians but all of US who vote for and support them. I will add here too that this Party's agenda and platform's precepts are calling for bans on teaching and a ban of materials that teach or say anything about critical race theory (systemic racism). This is the crime in the US and it is deplorable that it continues to be supported in Congress, in our government systems, and those who vote for and support this Party's agenda and precepts. And it all stems from money and power. Uvalde is just a drop in the bucket of a long and winding road that the Republicans will twist around all of US until their moral purity (and those in power and wealth) is well established among US. And folks will keep their AR15s and super assault weapons to keep things well cleansed at the lower levels and among the most vulnerable in our society.

6/1/229:44 AM

Frank Sterle Jr.Member

The 18-year-old Uvalde school shooter, Salvador Ramos, had been brutally bullied when he attended high school, in no small part due to a speech impediment. Although he is not said to have had autism spectrum disorder (ASD) issues, neurodevelopmental disorders among young people who commit school or mass shootings are not uncommon.

It’s no big secret that adverse childhood experience (ACE) abuse/trauma is often inflicted upon ASD and/or highly sensitive children and teens by their normal or ‘neurotypical’ peers, so why not at least acknowledge it in some meaningful, constructive way? For one thing, neurodiversity could be taught in school, albeit not overly complicated or extensive, to perhaps reduce the incidence of chronic bullying against such vulnerable students.

By extension, we might prevent an eventual bloody retaliation on some school day in the form of a mass shooting of innocent students, including peers who’d never even talked to the tortured-student-turned-gunman, let alone offended him.

Such neurodiversity curriculum could explain to students how, among other aspects of the condition, people with ASD (including those with higher functioning autism) are often erroneously deemed willfully ‘difficult’ and socially incongruent, when in fact such behavior is really not a choice but instead instinctual.

Furthermore, when around their normal or “neurotypical” peers, people with ASD typically feel compelled to “camouflage” or “mask,” terms used to describe their attempts at appearing to naturally fit in, an effort known to cause their already high anxiety and/or depression levels to worsen. And, of course, this exacerbation is reflected in the disproportionately high rate of suicide among ASD people.

For me it’s difficult to comprehend why teaching neurodiversity would be considered more controversial (and therefore unacceptable) than, as a good example, teaching students Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum, the latter which is currently taught in Canadian public schools.

5/31/226:38 PM

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