Members of the Womens’ Basketball team showed their support for Spartan peers during the Ohio State game Feb. 20. MSU juniors Arielle Anderson and Alexandria Verner and sophomore Brian Fraser were killed in a campus shooting Feb. 13. Five other students were seriously injured.

Even in a bonafide maize-out, Michigan basketball fans made it a point to tell the world, “We’re with MSU.” The U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention brings researchers together from different fields to generate knowledge and advance innovative solutions that will make our communities safer.

U-M students gathered on the Diag Feb. 15 to honor the shooting victims at MSU. Burton Tower glowed green over the somber event. “I was so proud to see our community come together for a vigil on the Diag,” says U-M President Santa J. Ono. “We must continue to do all we can to support one another at U-M, and our colleagues and friends at MSU, during this difficult time.”

Students even created a tribute to MSU at the sacred “Block M,” which they fiercely protect from Spartans during periods of high-intensity competition. The tribute reads: “Enough is enough” on small pieces of green paper. “U-M has a responsibility to draw on its breadth of academic and research expertise to address pressing societal challenges,” says President Santa J. Ono. “One of those challenges is the crisis of firearm-related injuries.”

Fans in Crisler Arena honor victims of the mass shooting at MSU with a moment of silence, bathed in green. More than 130 deaths occur each day across the United States due to firearm injuries.

Women’s lacrosse players affixed Spartan stickers to their helmets in a show of support. Meanwhile, U-M researchers worked with groups in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula to develop and implement a new firearm safety education program tailored to families living in rural communities.

Last fall, the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention designed and developed a free and publicly accessible firearm injury prevention online course in partnership with the U-M Center for Academic Innovation. The course offers the most comprehensive, evidence-based online learning opportunity in this field of study to date.

“We continue to offer our most profound sympathies to the entire Spartan community,” says President Santa J. Ono. “Their courage and steadfastness in the face of such extreme pain is an inspiration.”