ONE MILLION MOMS FOR GUN CONTROL: THIS IS OUR MOMENT

We are doing this for the 3,000 American children killed by gun violence last year alone — for those 3,000 mourning mothers, each with a story of immeasurable loss, grief and pain. As moms, we all know that when it is our child who lives or dies, statistics don’t matter.

— Sheela Raja, PhD

~By Sheela Raja, PhD

When it comes to public health and safety policy, big changes are never easy. New ideas are often met with resistance and suspicion. But sometimes in history, there are watershed moments that push us forward and remind us of our connection and obligations to one another. Those moments are often characterized by two things: 1) we are confronted with facts, and 2) we are haunted by individual children’s struggles and stories. Facts alone are almost never enough to move us. We tend to need the additional understanding of how real people, real families are affected.

Shifting the public consciousness on gun violence, and how to stop it, means we must be at that magic instant where people understand the issue with both their minds and their hearts. After the mass murder of 20 children in Newtown, Conn countless mothers in America are at that watershed moment. Right now.

Read the entire story at familiesintheloop.com

Sheela Raja, PhD is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and author of Overcoming Trauma and PTSD. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches Health Communication and Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Raja received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed internship and post-doctoral training at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston, MA. She is a highly sought after speaker and has given invited talks at federal, national, and community agencies on the topic of post-traumatic stress.