Columbine. Newton. Roseburg. Now San Bernardino.

All places families call home, communities that deserve to be known for so much more than being the site of another mass murder by gun.

Let me start out with this fact: I am not an anti-gun person. My father was a responsible gun owner as are the vast majority of Americans who have firearms in their possession. And while I have never even touched a gun, I understand why people want to have them to protect themselves and their homes.

That being said, something has to change. We must as a country work toward a solution to the problem of one after another after another horrifying shooting spree.

And all of the angry rhetoric, unfounded “statistics” and name-calling is not helping.

Taking guns from the hands of responsible people is not the solution. But obviously, what is going on now is not the answer as the weapons being used have most often been obtained legally.

We, the people from every side of the gun issue – and there are many more than two sides – need to stop the bombast, stop pointing fingers and listen, learn and work to solve the societal problems that lead to people picking up a weapon and using it to maim and kill others.

Because the thread that seems to wind through each of the stories of the shooters in these cases is the lack of respect for others.

I don’t claim to have the answer, no matter how much I wish I did. But what I do know is that the more entrenched people become in their positions, the less they seem to want to hear from anyone whose opinion is not the same.

And in the meantime, innocent lives are being claimed as another shooter takes aim.

When events were unfolding in San Bernardino Wednesday – one of three mass shootings that day – I flipped through the television channels to try to find out more of what had actually happened. No matter which station I was on, there seemed to be rumors and “reports” and all sorts of wild speculation being spewed forth.

Honestly, waiting for the mid-evening press conference by the law enforcement officials in charge of the investigation was agonizing. Being in the news business, I know being first is important but you know what, being right is even more vital. But no matter which channel I landed on, someone was citing unnamed sources and someone else was offering theories, pulled from the ether.

Filling airtime until the press conference with such garbage is ridiculous. This kind of hurry-up-then-backtrack journalism serves no one. And it makes a terrible situation even worse because it creates situations in which people who hear “early reports” put them in their minds as facts, leading to even more chaos in any discussion of what we, as a nation, can do to stop the neverending stream of horrible mass murders.

There’s nowhere safe. Shooters invade movie theaters, churches, workplaces and campuses. They come in the form of strangers but can be coworkers or even family members.

Some may have been treated for mental health issues, but some have never been in the medical health system, let alone the criminal justice system.

Grade-school children – 20 of them – were shot to death at Sandy Hook three years ago: That was when we had to know the horror had no boundaries.

Usually, my column is about something nostalgic or a happening in the field of entertainment. But harkening to the past or finding distraction won’t do this week.

Anyone with a suggestion for how we can all come together to find an answer, please step forward. Your nation needs cool heads and ready hearts to get to work on this problem.

Before every town joins the roster of sites of mass shootings, we have to stop killing each other. Now.

Editor’s note: Renee Prusi can be contacted at 906-228-2500, ext. 240.