How we can stop the next mass shooting

The nightmare scene is all too familiar in America. A person with warning signs on social media, a history of domestic disputes and police encounters acquires assault weapons and unleashes their anger in a hail of bullets. The crisis tests us. And we see people rise to the occasion. Children confidently lead adults in "run, hide and fight" tactics. Police run toward the sound of gunfire. Community members bring what skill and wit they have to help others - carrying the injured and protecting survivors.

Law enforcement agencies quickly share information and coordinate actions. The shooters are taken down or arrested. This all happened July Fourth in Highland Park. A similar story has unfolded nearly 320 times in America this year alone. As a nation, we're desperate for solutions to prevent the next mass shooting.

As I see it, the answer is visible in the noble reactions we often see after the attack. We must apply the same principles of courage, compassion and cooperation in our communities before scenes of carnage can take place.

A survival lesson

I am a survivor of one of the nation's first mass school shootings - the 1988 Winnetka attack - as the shooter took my family home hostage before taking her own life.

I'm alive today because of police officers who put themselves at great risk to pull me to safety and because of a skilled and practiced medical team. In that assault 35 years ago, I witnessed the same kindness, bravery and collaboration we saw this past July Fourth.

In both cases, though, the tragedies were preventable. Had there been more compassion 34 years ago about mental health challenges, greater courage to act on the threat the shooter clearly posed and higher levels of cooperation amid family members, community organizations and police, her deadly attack on second graders at Hubbard Woods Elementary could have been foiled.

I went on to serve 21 years as an FBI agent and crisis negotiator. My personal experience combating terrorism and violence, along with an extensive body of research and recent mass shootings, only reinforces these lessons: safeguarding communities is primarily about strengthening relationships and taking our duty to one another more seriously. Real public safety, in other words, is the product of compassion, courage and cooperation. Three Key Cs

Here's what the three Cs should look like in practice:

Compassion. This starts with greater empathy and kindness for those disconnected and troubled among us. Mass shooters are often young men who are loners and feel like losers in a culture that prizes winning. It's clear by now that parents alone can't raise all our children into healthy, productive and peaceful adults. It takes a village. It means bolstering mental health resources at school and supporting community organizations that provide engagement, mentoring and positive paths for youths.

Compassion also is critical for our police professionals. Law enforcement officers today are hurting amid stressors including a rise in violent crime, often-cynical workplace cultures and heightened expectations and scrutiny of their actions. Police wrestle with high levels of substance abuse, marital strain and suicide. Cops can't be great at responding to others in crisis if they are not healthy themselves. We need to help all first responders practice self-compassion and build healthy workplace environments.

Courage. This starts with bravery on the part of community members to speak up about friends, family members and neighbors at risk of harming others - if you see something, say something. It's a basic recognition that we have a responsibility to our community to contribute to the safety of its members. This concept was captured well by Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan in a recent essay about the shootings in Highland Park and Uvalde, Texas. I share Noonan's frustration that no one familiar with the alleged shooters spoke up and warned authorities: "This isn't respect for privacy and it isn't open-mindedness - I never judge a book by its cover - it is laziness, fear of involvement and a slovenly uninterest in the safety of others."

"Red flag laws" work and will significantly contribute to our public safety when activated by a courageous community.

Courage must extend to standing up to the gun lobby, dirty gun dealers and straw purchasers. In sheer greed and utter disregard for public safety, the gun industry currently markets assault weapons to children. The industry and its defenders also oppose universal background checks and protect the illegal gun market. This undermines our public safety and is a direct threat to our police.

Cooperation. We need stronger communication and coordination among people and institutions connected to those struggling - particularly those making threats. Friends and family of a young person signaling danger to themselves and others must have easy access to social workers, school officials, community groups and police.

The solution to angry, lost individuals may include meaningful connection, belonging, work, mental health support, monitoring by law enforcement - or a combination of all these.

Such team-based approaches require overcoming a couple of hurdles. The first and the biggest is the stigma parents may feel around identifying their children as at risk. The second is the challenge of centralizing these efforts to interrupt violence.

We're making on progress on both fronts. The shame associated with mental illness is dissipating - in part thanks to the COVID pandemic, which for all its harm, did make it easier to say "I'm not OK."

Inner-city inspiration

Perhaps surprisingly, suburban and rural communities looking for violence-disruption models can look to successes in inner-city areas. Chicago itself offers a hopeful example. In the years leading up to the pandemic, I helped support the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities - a coordinated multiagency effort to engage in outreach to pull those at risk into wraparound services, including counseling, job training, life coaching and mentorship. The result of this effort produced a 30 percent drop in shootings over two years in Chicago's most violence effected neighborhoods.

The best of humanity that was on display right after the Highland Park shooting is the bright spot that illuminates the way forward. Let's apply the same principles of compassion, courage and cooperation to public safety in meaningful ways now. If we do, we can stop the next mass shooting and finally wake up from this American nightmare.

• Phil Andrew is co-founder and principal of PAX Group, a crisis and conflict management consultancy based in Kenilworth. Phil served for 21 years as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and currently works to help organizations navigate complex and dynamic relationships, projects and environments.