We last wrote about gun violence in September (Herald, Sept. 12) after the Evergreen, Colorado, and Orem, Utah shootings. Only three months later, we’re here again. This time, the headlines include an Ivy League campus in Rhode Island and a Hanukkah celebration in Australia – both thousands of miles away, but not distant in impact or memory.
At Brown University on Saturday, two students were killed and nine others were wounded (Herald, Dec. 13). On Sunday, a mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia left 15 people dead (Herald, Dec. 14). Durango is not untouched by that horror: a local family’s child at Brown came home early, carrying the trauma of violence and the murder of a 19-year-old student they knew.
It is not hard to imagine this kind of violence occurring here – at a school, a place of worship, or a community gathering. That is the part of America we are increasingly normalizing: not just body counts, but the fear, anxiety, sleeplessness, and hypervigilance imposed on all of us – and especially on our youth, from active shooter drills to real violence during what should be the safest years of their lives.
It accumulates in classrooms, workplaces, places of worship, and our nervous systems. No longer just “the news,” it is our lived reality.
Pink Floyd's “Comfortably Numb” comes to mind: pain managed by blunting feeling rather than addressing its cause; loss of innocence; comfort that is really dissociation. Gun violence in America embodies this.
We must not become comfortably numb.
We also must be clear about what gun violence is. It is not only mass shootings. Suicide is the larger – and quieter – share, accounting for about 27,000 to 30,000 deaths annually, roughly 55% to 60% of all U.S. gun deaths. In Colorado, firearms are involved in about 700 of the state's 1,200–1,300 annual suicides, representing 56% of all suicides and nearly 72% of gun deaths.
That is why one new Colorado law matters. Senate Bill 25-034 – the Voluntary Do-Not-Sell Firearms Waiver, known as Donna's Law – allows individuals to voluntarily place themselves on a “do not sell” list, creating a legal pause during crisis. The Legislature passed it this year, but implementation requires private funding for a secure online portal and outreach. Of the $215,000 needed, $71,400 has been raised. It will save a small number of lives, but the ones it does matter.
Colorado has enacted broader gun reforms – universal background checks, limits on high-capacity magazines, safe-storage requirements, expanded red-flag laws, ghost-gun regulations, and a waiting period – many now tied up in court. Yet even where regulations exist, people who want guns still find ways to access them. State laws have limits when firearms can be purchased across state lines. The Herald's editorial board supports gun ownership alongside stronger protections and federal action.
Congress did act in 2022 after the Uvalde and Buffalo mass shootings. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act strengthened background checks for buyers under 21, funded red-flag laws, closed the domestic-violence “boyfriend loophole,” and increased penalties for gun trafficking. The law has prevented over 10,000 firearm purchases by domestic abusers and stopped hundreds of sales to dangerous buyers under 21. Yet nearly half of online gun purchases occur without background checks due to private sales and inconsistent state enforcement.
As Hanukkah – the season of light – begins, Australia demonstrated another way forward. After Sunday's mass shooting, leaders moved quickly to tighten gun laws. That is a society choosing not to let violence extinguish its light.
We can choose light – and action. Demand gun reform equal to this crisis's scale, at the statehouse and in Congress, and refuse the numb comfort of doing nothing. Donate at donnaslawforco.com before year's end to implement Donna's Law and give the gift of time to someone in crisis. If you or someone you know needs help, contact Colorado Crisis Services at 1-844-493-8255 or text TALK to 38255.
