If passing gun laws can stop the type of senseless violence that occured in Boulder and Atlanta recently — then we should encourage our elected officials to pass them and pass them now.

Yet I am amazed that when faced with a challenge in these United States we immediately look to the government to fix it. As I, and I’m sure you, sit with friends and family and discuss these abhorrent acts I’m struggling to come up with a solution.

Is it background checks, is it longer waiting periods, is it specific kinds of guns? Is it the consequence of the death penalty that has been removed, is the lack of access to mental health care? Are the men who perpetrate these horrible acts just completely detached from accountability and morality? I don’t know.

Here’s what I do know: as child abductions grew and grew we the people took action. As I sat with my friends in the school lunchroom many decades ago I remember seeing kids’ faces on milk jugs, several years later a grassroots movement pushed for the passage and implementation of the AMBER Alert system. This system allowed for a much speedier response and better communication on solving child abductions — and empowered we the people so we could assist if we could in stopping these people who had taken a child.

Why do we believe that laws alone are the answer?

There are laws that make taking children against their will illegal, there are already laws that make murdering people illegal.

I don’t purport to have a solution but I penned a column several weeks ago that hopefully encouraged you to take action, for you to take steps to get us, the citizens more involved and more actively take control of our lives.

I hope today’s column does the same — if passing more laws is the answer then encourage lawmakers to pass them. If those laws — which some will argue infringe upon our Second Amendment rights — offer no guarantees this won’t happen again then what else is there for us to do?

To support or oppose gun law changes doesn’t remove our need to come up with a solution. To say these laws won’t help or be an absolutist of any kind, either in favor or against or to simply say “I support the Second Amendment” doesn’t fix the problem.

We are an amazing group of people — we are a smart and innovative group of people. So, what can we accomplish to prevent these mass murders from happening again? we should figure that out and make it happen.

Bryce Jacobson is publisher of the Glenwood Springs Post Independent and Rifle Citizen Telegram. He can be reached at bjacobson@postindependent.com or at 970-384-9133.