VoxPopuli: What went through your mind when you heard about the shooting at Florida State University?

Barbie Harden Hall: I think I was picking up my kids or I had just gotten home from picking up my kids, and it’s just another one of those moments where you think, Again. We’re here again. It’s heartbreaking.  As somebody who has lost a child, I automatically go to that feeling, and knowing that somebody else at that moment is experiencing that feeling.  It's literally every time I hear something like that, I feel it, knowing that somebody else is going through that experience in that moment.

VoxPopuli: We should make it clear that you did not lose a child to gun violence, but to a rare disease. Still, losing a child, the pain is the same. My son’s best friend goes to FSU. Thankfully, he was okay. But hearing about a shooting always makes you want to hug your kids tighter.

Barbie Harden Hall: Absolutely.

VoxPopuli: These shootings keep happening. Where’s the disconnect coming from between shootings and guns? Why aren’t we making the connection that guns are killing our kids?

Barbie Harden Hall: I don’t know. Because to me, we’re past the point of no action. There is no longer an excuse for not acting. We’ve tried It’s not the guns, and it keeps happening. I think we have to make people realize this is not about taking all of your guns. We have to have common-sense action to make a difference.

We have to have safe storage laws. We have to have red flag laws. Will it prevent every single instance? No. But we have to do something. I think any responsible gun owner will agree you have to responsibly store your firearms. We have to keep people who are not mentally healthy from having weapons. We should keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.

VoxPopuli: Pew Research Center found bipartisan agreement on many of gun safety issues. For instance, when it comes to preventing people who have mental health issues from obtaining firearms, 88 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Democrats agreed with that.

A majority of people in both parties — 69 percent of Republicans and 90 percent of Democrats — support 21 as the minimum age for purchasing a gun. A majority of people in both parties — 60 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Democrats — also oppose allowing people to carry concealed weapons without permits.

Where do you come down on assault weapons? Pew found that 57 percent of Republicans oppose banning assault weapons and 54 percent oppose banning high-capacity magazines. On the Democrat side, 85 percent supported banning both. What do you think? Should people be allowed to carry around weapons that are intended for the battlefield?

Barbie Harden Hall:  I do not believe that weapons of war should be in our homes. And I don’t think, if you talk to most police officers, that they would say, Yeah, I feel comfortable going into a random person’s house not knowing if I’m facing conditions I would see in a war zone.

I think you have to sit down and really iron out and compromise as far as legislation goes. But where we have the gun lobby coming in and saying, You can’t have any regulations. You can’t have any restrictions, we just can’t do that anymore. We're talking about the difference between a Constitutional right to own a firearm, you know, people wanting something to protect themselves, to protect their homes, to protect their families, and weapons that were not even in the mindset of the people who wrote the Constitution.

VoxPopuli: We know the FSU gunman obtained a handgun that belonged to his stepmother who’s a Leon County Sheriff’s deputy. We don’t know all of the details about how that transpired yet, and we should emphasize that the sheriff's deputy is not accused of any wrongdoing. But in general do you believe that if a child uses a parent’s unsecured weapon in a shooting, the parent should be held responsible?

Barbie Harden Hall: Absolutely, I do. As a gun owner, you have responsibility for safely storing that gun. I grew up around guns. My husband is a gun owner. I’m not personally comfortable with guns, but I grew up [with them]. You were responsible around them, you secured them. That’s something I’ve always known and was raised on.

VoxPopuli: What do you say to those who frame mass shootings as a mental health issue? That it’s not the guns, it’s mental health?

Barbie Harden Hall: I think that’s convenient. I think that in this case of criminal action, you want to blame mental health. But if that’s the case, where is your focus on mental health for people who are incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated, to help them not re-offend? I think that’s been the focus for so long, yet they don’t want to do anything to help with mental health funding or Medicaid funding for mental health or for prevention.

VoxPopuli: Plus, research doesn’t really back up the connection between mass shooters and mental illness. About 20 percent of Americans have a mental illness for starters. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also did a study and found that only 25 percent of mass shooters had a mental illness. Of that number, just 5 percent had anything on their record, like being committed to a mental health facility, that would have prevented them from purchasing a weapon. And researchers say that even if all mental illness were somehow taken care of, if it all magically went away, violence would still only dip about 4 percent.

So, if that’s not the answer, what are some more effective ones?

Barbie Harden Hall: At the very least, let’s make sure we’re talking about some standard red flag laws, state safe storage laws, background checks and a federal system where people are not state hopping to get a gun easier without waiting periods.

VoxPopuli: You think that’s a good balance between the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, and the right to not have your child mowed down by gun fire while they’re in their classroom?

Barbie Harden Hall: I think it’s a start. Unfortunately, with what we’re seeing with political polarization right now, it’s going to be baby steps. Any step forward is going to be something. Right now, I feel we’re taking several leaps back.

The movement right now in the right direction is going to be getting some of these assault rifles and high-capacity magazines out of people’s hands. But I feel like that is a full stop in people’s minds. So let’s get the red flag laws, let’s get the safe storage laws. And once people realize, Hey I’m not taking every single gun, then let’s see where the next step is.