Michael O. Leavitt: Preventing another Tucson

Editor's note: Michael O. Leavitt is the newest member of the Deseret News Editorial Advisory Board. Leavitt served in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush (Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Secretary of Health and Human Services) and as a three-time elected governor of Utah. He is the founder and chairman of Leavitt Partners.

Television programming is interrupted by a breaking news story unfolding someplace in the United States. A deranged shooter has opened fire on everyday Americans at a school, shopping mall or public meeting. We are at first dazed, then incredulous and finally grief stricken. It just keeps happening, but why, and more importantly, what can be done to prevent tragedies like the one in Tucson?

On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more at Virginia Tech in the deadliest peacetime shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history. I was Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at the time. Within days of the tragedy, the White House called and President George W. Bush directed me, with the assistance of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, to find answers about what the federal government could do to prevent such tragedies.

In the 12 days that followed, we traveled to states where unthinkable events had unfolded — Columbine, Red Lake, the Bell Tower at the University of Texas and nine other cities where demoralizing moments in American history had occurred. At each location we met with groups of educators, mental health experts, law enforcement personnel and state and local officials who had been participants in these events and their aftermath. Their reflections and observations proved valuable, and we catalogued them in a report to the President. (See Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, June 13, 2007.

It has been nearly four years since then and once again we struggle to understand the social implications of a deranged gunman acting on his own to terrorize our nation. Feeling our national turmoil caused me to review the report to the president. Little has changed since it was issued, and I am inclined to believe our observations may have even more meaning today.

We recommended a series of action items, but made clear we did not "see them individually or together, as a panacea for the many complex issues our society confronts in trying to prevent another tragedy. Rather, they are an attempt to frame the issues and identify tangible steps we can take over time to help prevent events like the Virginia Tech tragedy." I offer them again in the same spirit.

We offered five still relevant and important suggestions:

First, people misuse the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly known as HIPPA, and neglect to share information that could be helpful. Many of the obstacles to sharing information are only perceived, as opposed to real, HIPPA restrictions. The fact is there are methods of sharing information on persons who are likely to be of danger to themselves or others.

Second, accurate and complete information on individuals prohibited from possessing firearms is essential to keep guns out of the wrong hands. The report says: "State laws and practices do not uniformly ensure that information on persons restricted from possessing firearms is appropriately captured and available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)." Four years later, some progress has been made on this problem, but progress is slow among the states.

Third, awareness and communication are key to prevention. Early reports from Tucson make clear that many in the community saw warning signs in the behavior of the alleged assailant, but failed to act. It is important that parents, students and teachers learn to recognize warning signs and encourage those who need help to seek it, so that people receive the care they need and our communities are kept safe.