Brian Lee-Mounger Hendershot is the managing editor for Western City magazine; he can be reached at bhendershot@calcities.org. Additional contributions by Alex Guzman, editorial assistant.

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About twice a week, the unthinkable happens in the United States. A gunman enters a school, church, or community space and opens fire. This is true even in California, which has some of the nation’s most effective gun laws and a (relatively) low rate of gun violence: Californians experienced a mass shooting every six days in 2023.

Chances are, at least one person reading this article will have to respond to the unthinkable. How you prepare and react will play a key role in helping your community heal. And although each shooting requires a unique response, there are some steps all cities should take.

“[It’s] great that we have those best practices, but it is a sad state of affairs for our country and our community that we’ve had so many mass shootings that a set of best practices have emerged,” said James Gibbons-Shapiro, an assistant district attorney for Santa Clara County.

Before the shooting

One of the “easiest” ways to stop a mass shooting is to use California’s red flag laws — temporarily seize firearms from people who are a danger to themselves or others. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office increased its use of gun violence restraining orders in 2018, accounting for 24% of all orders issued statewide.

“These are not laws that are trying to take away guns from people who are doing all sorts of things in their daily life that are safe and appropriate,” Gibbons-Shapiro said. “These are laws that are trying to keep us safe when someone is making a threat to use their gun to harm someone else or to harm themselves.”

These orders don’t just stop mass shootings, say experts. They can prevent domestic violence and suicides, especially when taken as part of a larger set of actions. In Santa Clara County, police agencies work with behavioral health teams to connect people with services and counseling.

“The gun violence restraining order is a really important tool, but it’s not the only tool we have, and it’s often best used with lots of other tools,” said Gibbons-Shapiro.

However, red flag laws are only meaningful if we enforce and support them. According to Gibbons-Shapiro, many agencies struggle to find the resources, talent, and training needed to enforce red flag laws. It’s not just a matter of empowering courts and task forces either. Public agencies also need to invest in culturally appropriate outreach.

Council Member Henry Lo was the mayor of Monterey Park, a mostly Asian American and Pacific Islander community, during a 2023 shooting that killed 11 people and injured nine others. He says that red flag laws aren’t helpful if they’re not paired with an outreach program that reflects the local community.

And that doesn’t mean just providing materials about gun laws in different languages: It means hiring outreach workers with knowledge of the community — what is taboo and what isn’t. Take mental health for example: A person’s culture, ethnicity, or gender can influence their mental health, treatment, or even willingness to seek out help.

“It doesn’t help to have red flag laws, if it’s not complemented with an outreach program that is reflective of the diversity of this nation,” said Lo earlier this year.

Gun violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It overwhelmingly happens in historically marginalized communities. People who have suffered generations of trauma are more likely to be both victims and perpetrators. Those who survive gun violence — especially children — are more likely to experience negative behavioral health outcomes.

“We really need to think more broadly about gun violence and trace it back to where it comes from,” said Kasey Halcón, deputy county executive for Santa Clara County. “We really need to think about it as community violence prevention and invest in our traditionally underinvested communities and think less about who’s a victim and who’s a perpetrator and think more about who’s in need, because everybody on both sides of that coin (victims and perpetrators) are in need.”

During the shooting

Few school shootings are as horrific as Uvalde. Two years ago, an 18-year-old with no prior firearm experience massacred 19 students and two teachers in Texas. Close to 400 law enforcement officers breached the classroom after waiting over an hour and 14 minutes.

A report by the Texas House of Representatives found that “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making,” along with a lack of basic communications skills caused the chaotic, uncoordinated response.

It’s almost impossible to anticipate shootings like Uvalde. There are too many targets, too many easily accessible guns, too many entrenched social issues, and too few resources. This means, like any other disaster, there is no such thing as enough planning or stakeholder engagement.

Ask yourself and others: How will police get guns away from someone who refuses to surrender their firearm? What types of services will the city or county offer affected individuals? If there is a shooting, what notification systems are in place? Are there clear evacuation policies and procedures? How will your plans change based on the location and victims?

That same level of planning should also extend to your communication strategy, says Elaine Jennings, an expert on homeland security and crisis communications. Local officials may not have all the answers. But failing to communicate with the public — which can be as simple as acknowledging the situation and any known facts — allows misinformation and rumors to spread like wildfire. Officials need to communicate relevant, verified information as quickly as possible to calm fears and ensure public confidence in the response. 

“Leaders must get out in front first. And get out in front fast,” said Jennings. “Because in the media environment in which we live today, if you aren’t fast, you’re behind the game and someone else will set the narrative.”

Even though Lo held a press conference the morning after the Monterey Park shooting, he thinks he should have responded faster. “I think for a lot of people, it’s probably a lot to process in a short amount of time,” he said. “But I suppose for anyone that holds a public position like mine, unfortunately, that’s just reality. You need to be able to react almost in real-time.”

But it’s not just about communicating facts quickly, says Jennings. It’s about how you communicate. “[Government officials’] role is to really lead through that crisis, to provide empathy, leadership, [and] compassion to those impacted,” she said. “They’re the ones who need to be the communicator, to be that voice or the face that leads that community through the tragedy.”

It’s also crucial to communicate and build trust before a crisis. The more training responders have, and the more people trust you, the more likely first responders will be able to mount an effective response that minimizes lost lives and injuries. Santa Clara County has a multidisciplinary team that talks about gun violence, relevant trends, and mitigation strategies.

“Relationship building is really, really critical. Nobody can do this work alone,” says Halcón. “City and county partnerships — that’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s having those two systems work well together to maximize what are often limited resources, particularly in a state deficit, to try and address some of these really complicated challenges.”

The California Attorney General estimates that gun violence costs the state about $18 billion. But one study of California cities found that gun violence programs and strengthened safety net programs save taxpayers millions in the long run.

“Maintaining public safety, keeping people safe, holding people accountable, will always be a part of what we as local government do,” Halcón said. “But if it were enough to stop violence, we would have stopped violence.”

After the shooting

If there is a mass shooting, people will need a space to heal. In Monterey Park, the city provided access to counseling, a community healing fund and center, and low-interest loans to affected businesses. Santa Clara County set up community resiliency centers with services.

Halcón says it’s important that these spaces look “nongovernmental” and welcoming — soft colors and fabrics, natural light, couches, plants, and art. Put these places in spaces where people feel comfortable.

“It’s a place that you feel safe to be,” Halcón said. “If you need to lay on the floor and cry, you can lay on the floor and cry. If you need to sit on a chair and read a book, you can sit on the chair and read the book. If you need to sit on a couch and talk to a therapist, we got one of those too.”

What long-term healing looks like will depend on the individual: Children won’t need the exact same services as a largely male blue-collar workforce. Healing will also be a long-term process for many, as each new shooting can trigger a grief response.

It’s also important to take care of yourself and your team. Halcón says she pushed herself and first responders far too hard the first time she responded to a mass shooting, causing burnout and vicarious trauma among the service providers on her team. The second time, the county had mental health professionals for survivors, family members, and first responders. Staff could only work so many days and mental health check-ins were mandatory.

“It’s incumbent upon leaders as we’re developing these plans, to think about how we care — you got to help the helpers,” Halcón said. “The helpers cannot do the work without the support of their management and the leadership of the counties and the cities they work for.”

Can we stop the unthinkable?

This year, the first graders who survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are old enough to vote. It’s a tragic milestone in a decades-long trend. But local officials are not powerless: They can push for and create change. Many of California’s most effective gun safety laws were first passed at the local level.

Since 2023, Lo and his fellow council members have spoken out against gun violence. In fact, Lo spoke with Western City a few minutes before a local rally against gun violence, held in response to a school shooting in Georgia that left four dead and nine injured. Like many, he’s upset at the absence of leadership on this issue at the federal level.

“We have to be courageous and be able to actually look at ourselves and look deep into our souls and ask, ‘What can we do to actually make a difference in stopping gun violence,’” Lo said. “If we don’t talk about the cause of the tragedy of the incident, then we might as well be putting our heads in the sand.”