Guest columnist Amy Florian: Many approaches needed to solve this crisis

The Daily Herald Editorial Board regularly seeks opinions and reflections on issues we expect to comment on from a Sounding Board formed as a diverse group of independent suburban voices. In the aftermath of the July 4 shootings in Highland Park, we have struggled to find words to respond to unspeakable crimes with the depth and range of ideas such a tragedy demands. So we decided to hold our own voice for a day and instead turn over the editorial space directly to individuals on the Sounding Board. We asked members who felt comfortable doing so to provide in a few sentences their reactions to the mass shooting and offer their ideas about solutions. This is one essay from that project.

There are no simple answers to the continuing tragedy of mass shootings like the one in Highland Park.

Certainly, reasonable gun legislation is part of it. In our defense of the right to bear arms, we must also promote that such arms be "well regulated," as the Amendment states, a clear indication that the Founding Fathers did not intend unfettered access by anyone to every gun available.

It is also true that the Constitution was written in an era when the most destructive "arms" were muskets capable of killing one person at a time and cannons that were not reasonable for individual people to own. I believe they would favor restricting high-capacity assault rifles, which are not used for hunting, self-defense or target practice, but are the weapon of choice for people who aim to efficiently and quickly kill as many people as possible.

Studies from around the world clearly point to the connection between easy access to deadly weapons and deaths from those weapons. The recently passed federal law is a good start. We need sensible regulations of guns, just like we regulate cigarettes, cars, drugs and anything else that can be used for good or for evil.

Yet, we need more than reasonable gun regulations. The issue and therefore the solution, is multifaceted.

We need robust mental health assistance - a massive undertaking requiring vast amounts of funding and research.

We need more accurate tracking of social media sites such as the ones used by the shooters in Buffalo, New York and Highland Park and of all social media that promotes misinformation and radicalization, with appropriate follow-up when a red flag appears.

We need preaching in churches, condemning violence in all its forms and promoting a core tenet of every major religion - that we are all one and every person is our brother or sister.

We need targeted investment in poor or gang-infested neighborhoods, so we can provide kids of every culture with the education, support and inspiration they need to shun gangs and violence, because a better life is within their reach.

We could go on with strategies, all of which would contribute. The problem is overwhelming. Yet, we must start somewhere and begin addressing it. Letting it once again fade into the background and become part of the fabric of our society is to choose living in fear because nowhere and no one is safe from senseless killing.

We can do better than that.

We must do better than that.

• Amy Florian, of Hoffman Estates, is CEO of Corgenius, an author of multiple books and articles and an expert in the study of death and grief.