By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

The mass shootings the past two weeks in San Bernardino and Colorado Springs may have happened in other parts of the country, but they underscore a prevalent danger in all of American society. I can tell you as a mayor—and a father, husband, son, friend and neighbor—that I never want to see our city added to the growing list of places visited by these all too frequent tragedies. One of my chief responsibilities is ensuring public safety and the simple fact is that, when it comes to mass shootings, as a nation, we are not doing enough.

The San Bernardino attack marked the 353rd time in 2015 that four or more people had been killed or wounded in one of these attacks. At the current pace, this year probably will average slightly more than one mass shooting per day, though each attack has its own unique characteristics. The triggers reported range from mental illness, racism, or bullying to workplace anger, jihadist radicalization, political extremism, and more. It’s clear that the motivations and backgrounds of shooters can vary.

Yet what is the same in each case is the assailants had no problem putting their hands on the firepower necessary to carry out their twisted plans. The largely unchecked proliferation of guns in our society makes it easy to do evil. We are coming up on the four-year anniversary of the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and our Congress has yet to pass a single law that could help stem this tide of violence. Many reacted angrily after San Bernardino when various Congressional leaders sent out the perfunctory “thoughts and prayers” tweets because such sentiments ring increasingly hollow from those who refuse to take action. If they really cared they would do something to curb the gun violence that threatens all of us.

At the local level, we remain vigilant on security measures and police readiness, but the tragic odds are that determined shooters will generally find a way. We can’t— and we shouldn’t have to—militarize every restaurant, movie theater and church in response to the gun threat. So we’re left in a position where otherwise all we can do is react to these tragedies when they occur in our communities because the gun lobby has effectively blocked all attempts to pass common sense gun reform. The truth of the matter is most gun owners are law-abiding citizens. I used to be a gun owner myself. Gun owners are not bad people and they certainly don’t support the notion of putting extreme killing power in the hands of evildoers. Polls show that more than 90% of Americans, which includes the vast majority of gun owners, favor national background checks on gun purchases. It would prevent those with histories of domestic abuse, mental illness, and international terrorism risks from purchasing weapons. Studies have concluded that more than half of mass shooters would fail a meaningful background check. Yet attempts to pass universal background check legislation go nowhere on Capitol Hill. In short, Congress is ignoring the will of the people.

Last week Congress even refused to close the loophole that allows people on the terrorist watch list to buy guns. Legislators who wring their hands over the safety implications of children and grandmothers entering our country as carefully vetted refugees somehow do not think it’s a priority to keep weapons out of the hands of those we won’t let onto an airplane. That would seem to be basic security, but our security comes second to gun lobby interests. Lack of gun control endangers our law enforcement as well. I can tell you our local police forces do not want to be up against heavily armed malefactors or in the position of arriving at a mass shooting already underway. I’ve yet to meet a police chief who isn’t for sensible gun regulation. This inaction is putting police lives on the line since they’re the first responders at these scenes.

It goes beyond background checks. We could limit magazine sizes, which would curtail the killing power of our guns. We could mandate stamping technology for new guns, which would make them easily traceable. We could crack down on shady gun dealers. There’s a gun shop in Chicago that supplied more than 1,500 guns tied to criminal activity in a recent five-year sample and yet it remains in business.

There’s no shortage of reforms we could enact to stop that flow of guns directly into the criminal market, but legislative roadblocks prevent it. At the very least, we could increase funding for the CDC, NIH, and others to collect more data and study the effects of gun policies. We also could treat gun ownership like car ownership, requiring a gun license and for your guns to be registered. In combination with national background checks, that could help separate the responsible gun owners from many of the would-be killers. That is hardly a case of treading upon the Second Amendment. You don’t hear motorists claiming a license and registration unreasonably curtails their right to drive.

Guns have killing power. Most people recognize and respect that. They understand the need for sensible gun regulations. Our laws need to provide some protection from these random and increasingly frequent outbursts of gun violence. No law or set of laws will cut the number of mass shootings to zero, but there are ways we can keep guns out of the wrong hands and save lives. Federal inaction leaves us vulnerable. That’s the same for every city and town in America. We’re on the frontline and Congress isn’t stepping up to offer us some measure of protection. It doesn’t matter what our individual politics may be, our lives are worth more than the talking points opposing common sense gun reform.