Something is wrong in America when fellow citizens use firearms to settle differences.

Something is wrong when so many families are forced to grieve the senseless loss of a loved one lost to gun violence — especially when this violence is the result of a disagreement that could and should have been worked out peacefully.

Right here, in northwest Ohio, we have witnessed almost daily accounts of gun violence.

● Last Tuesday, disputes between neighbors apparently prompted a Springfield Township man to gun down a man and a woman who had just put their children on a school bus. The man then set the couple’s house on fire and turned the gun on himself. The school system, the whole township, is in a state of shock.

● Also last week, a Toledo dispatcher and her husband were found shot to death in their home after an apparent domestic dispute.

● The previous weekend, in Solon, Ohio, a motorist rammed his sport utility vehicle into the vehicle of another driver, emerged from his overturned SUV, pulled out a rifle, and repeatedly shot the other driver — a mother of three. She was on her way to work.

These are not signs of a healthy culture. They signify that something is very wrong.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have yet to undertake a comprehensive study of gun violence. And gun violence is a public health issue. The CDC needs to look at it. Perhaps the CDC can help break the federal legislative logjam on this matter with fresh insights and proposals. A great many ordinary folks are living in fear. They worry about getting through their daily activities without becoming the target of someone with a firearm.

According to USA Gun Violence, there are some 283 million guns in the hands of U.S. citizens. Of the 4.5 million guns that are sold annually, 2 million are handguns.

More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms in America every year. Roughly half of the victims are between the ages of 18 and 35. About a third are under 20.

Most of these victims of gun violence are not gang members or drug dealers, they are just people, all of whom want to go home to their families at night; all of whom want their families to come home to them. And yet, the public’s desire that firearms do not wind up in the hands of the wrong people continually falls on the deaf ears of our public officials.

What will it take to get movement on this issue?

We are growing more and more desensitized to gun violence in this society. We have seen so much that we turn away. No one seems to have answers. No one in Washington takes action. It keeps getting worse.

Is it possible that, after the presidential election, there might be a CDC study done with fresh eyes and a serious discussion might commence in Congress?

It has to happen. Gun violence is a policy problem, a public health and safety crisis, and a sign of cultural and spiritual unraveling.

First Published September 6, 2016, 4:00 a.m.