This is an opinion column.

The manhunt for Robert Card is over. Details are still emerging. In Lewiston, Maine, 18 are dead and 13 are injured. The alleged shooter received mental health treatment before the massacre, so Republicans cite “mental health,” and Democrats will claim, “It’s the guns.” America is a violent headcase, and I’m sick of acting like there’s nothing we can do.

Lawful gun ownership is literally built into the founding fabric of our nation. We’re not amending the Constitution anytime soon, so gun control efforts remain relatively limited in the United States compared to global norms. Even so, Americans passionately debate any restrictions placed on gun ownership. More often than not, it’s driven by rhetoric instead of information.

Consider RAND Gun Policy in America analysis which concludes that many popular gun-related policies supported by both parties aren’t backed with scientific evidence of their efficacy. Better analysis that isn’t designed to support predetermined policy outcomes would go a long way into informing the discussion about ideal gun policies consistent with the Constitution.

Let’s be honest about the part we can agree on: We’re nuts. According to a 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation/CNN survey, 90% of Americans believe our nation has a mental health crisis. What did we think was going to happen when we mix almost half of the world’s civilian-owned guns with our mentally beleaguered, strung out, culture?

If I hear one more politician say America “needs to address mental health issues,” I’m going to scream, my wife is going to admonish me for using profanity, and we’re still going to be left shrugging our shoulders about a massive problem.

Congress routinely appears capable of one policy solution: Throw money at it. Federal cash bombs are wildly inefficient responses. See COVID-19 laws as a perfect example. States are still trying to figure out what to do with all the money Congress doled out. Announcing more deficit spending isn’t the same as solving a problem.

Addressing our mental health is far more important than dealing with our physical health. We are our minds, not our bodies. That’s not some exotic metaphysical proposition. I can lose my foot and still be me. The flu might put me out of commission for a few days, but who I am doesn’t fundamentally change. Serious illnesses like cancer or heart disease wreck the body, but the attendant mental anguish for patients and families is every bit as potent.

Learning to identify mental health challenges and address them early is a game changer.

As a therapeutic foster home, my family is trained to engage and support kids struggling with a wide range of mental health issues. Trauma-informed parenting has not only changed the way I parent the children in my home, but it also shapes the way I react to critics and engage my coworkers. I’ve learned to recognize trauma, regulate responses, build relationships, and then work through disagreement.

Reducing gun violence is first and foremost a matter of internal and external conflict resolution.

We’re teaching our children to read, but we’re not teaching them to self-regulate. Students practice to become better athletes, but we’re not practicing building healthy relationships. We’re learning about our history as states and a nation, but we struggle to help each other connect past trauma to their current behavior.

We must equip the next generation with the tools they need to navigate society without resorting to violence or self-harm.

Start there. Make trauma-informed training mandatory for freshmen in high school. Trauma-informed parenting should be free and accessible even for parents who aren’t part of the foster system. This isn’t some radical ideology cooked up by bureaucrats looking to therapize everyone. It’s fantastic training based on brain anatomy and tomes of scientific research. More importantly, it’s effective. My wife and I have personally used it to de-escalate several potentially dangerous situations, and we’ve taught our boys the same techniques.

While we’re at it, we should take the link between screen time and mental health a little more seriously. The Yale Department of Psychiatry and Columbia School of Nursing completed the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study earlier this year which analyzed screen media activity in over 5,100 9- and 10-year-olds. The ABCD study found “youth who spent the most time on their digital technology were statistically more likely to exhibit higher levels of internalizing problems two years later. Internalizing problems include depression, anxiety, social anxiety, somatic complaints, and other concerns.”

We have a mental health crisis, and we’re knowingly hooking up millions of children to screens without a second thought about the future toll it will take on society.

It’s time to wake up instead of being comfortably numb about the latest mass shooting. When I look at my wife and boys, I can’t imagine losing them to a troubled person with a gun. The shooter takes his own life, and society moves on with the next news cycle. Yes, it’s difficult to craft policy responses to gun violence that can become law. Losing a loved one to a senseless act of violence is far worse.

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Smith is a recovering political attorney with four boys, two dogs, a bearded dragon, and an extremely patient wife. He’s a partner in Triptych Media, a business strategy wonk, and a regular on talk radio. Please direct outrage or agreement to [email protected] or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.