Pontiac, Mich. – The Oakland County Prosecutor announced a new commission on Monday that focuses on reducing gun violence in schools.
“I just can’t for one more day, turn on the TV or the news and watch more people killed and murdered, children, and say, well, that’s just part of our life. It is not. And it’s preventable,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald.
Prevention starts with pulling together a council of 24 experts in a variety of fields, both locally and nationally, to come up with an evidence-based prevention manual.
One of those 24 experts, Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son was killed at Sandy Hook. She started a nonprofit, Sandy Hook Promise, a month after her son died, and has seen real results in its prevention efforts.
“I know that what we do in terms of upstream violence prevention has had a significant impact in terms of averted suicides, mental health interventions, and to date, at least 11 credible planned school shootings that we’ve stopped,” said Hockley.
Dr. Mark Zimmerman, from the Institute of Firearm Prevention in Ann Arbor, compares gun reform to cars, he said, “it’s not just making safe cars, it’s making safe drivers.”
The commission is hoping to get these data-driven protocols out to the schools in the next eight months, their first meeting was right after the announcement press conference.