There are 310 million or more civilian owned firearms in the US. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, firearms were used in 11,208 deaths by homicide, 21,175 by suicide, 505 deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm, and 281 deaths due to firearms-use with “undetermined intent” for a total of 33,169 deaths related to firearms (excluding firearm deaths due to legal intervention). If you do the math that’s .01% of firearms being used to kill someone each year with 64% of those deaths being suicides. With so little percentage of firearms being used to commit violent crimes, what else can be done?

Here’s what our country needs to do to reduce gun violence. No mass shooter has been mentally healthy, in fact, it’s the only other thing all the shooters have in common, aside from using a gun. The four things listed below are truly what I think our country needs to do in order to stop mass shootings.

1) We need a massive public education effort to inform the mass public of mental illness and how to get the mentally ill proper treatment. Many people don’t know the warning signs of mental illness. All the shooters showed signs of mental illness but the signs were missed. This country needs to dedicate itself to having programs similar to sex education in middle and high school that educate people on the warning signs of severe mental illnesses. Things like schizophrenia, suicide, things that could potentially put people in danger. A part of this would also be to teach people how to properly talk people into seeking treatment, and how to get their family to get them involuntarily committed if they refuse treatment.

2) We need to make a huge effort to reduce the social stigma around mental health issues. I am confident there are a lot of people in this country that want help for mental illnesses but don’t want the baggage of the social stigma that surround seeking help.

3) We need to invest billions, not millions, into upgrading our mental health system. It is a complete and utter disaster. Our country needs the best mental health treatment in the world. We need to make sure that people who notice the warning signs are able to get people help. We need to follow up on the commitments to mental institutions by having regular visits to those who are at risk of relapse. This can be done by investing heavily in home-visit groups. We need to make sure that recently institutionalized people are visited weekly or every two weeks and that they are meeting treatment goals like taking medication. If they aren’t taking their medication, the house call nurse can involuntarily commit them again to get them more or better treatment.

4) Finally our government needs to offer to get the medications of the mentally ill for x number of months after they are released from a mental health institution provided they cannot afford the medication on their own. The government also needs to make mental healthcare completely free. People who are in these institutions are there because they can barely manage their lives, we can’t possibly expect them to pay mental health bills when they are most vulnerable, not to mention the fact that the mental health bill could be a turn away for people seeking treatment.

It’s time we accept the fact restricting lawful gun owners from purchasing firearms because of the extremely minor percentage they will do a mass shooting is not working. We need to refocus our strategy from gun laws, to focusing on treating the mentally ill.