Right now the hot topic is what to do about mass shootings, which happened again in all of its horribleness in a high school in Florida. The president expressed his condolences and said he would work to improve student safety, but no mention of guns. The NRA contributed $30,000,000 to help get him elected. Florida Senator Marco Rubio expressed horror at the shootings. He has received millions from the NRA. The same is true of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. But they send their "thoughts and prayers".
The argument continues that making laws doesn't stop criminals. But the 19 year-old shooter bought his high capacity weapon legally at a gun store. He is a troubled young man, obviously with mental health issues, but he did not show up on the radar because he was never identified as needing help, except for a time in a special needs class in his younger school life. Even if he had been identified as needing more help, there are very few resources available to get him that help.
On Facebook my nephew said the solution to everything is to put airport style metal detectors at the school doors and hire armed security guards. At the same time we can hardly pass our school levies because people don't want to pay taxes to support schools and all of this would be very costly. The Parkland High School had a security guard. He never encountered the shooter. How many armed guards and metal detectors would it take to secure one school?
We want to protect children at school, certainly, but that wouldn't help the folks enjoying music at a concert in Las Vegas.
Certainly our gun death explosion is a mental health issue, and we need more resources for troubled youth especially. But we now have 300,000,000 guns floating around in this country. Handguns are responsible for multiple deaths every day. I don't know what we can do with those already out there, but we can certainly require background checks, waiting periods, and registration for new purchases.
As for "assault" weapons, automatic rifles, bump stock, whatever you want to call high capacity weapons, nobody "needs" them, nobody hunts with them, and they make it way too easy to shoot seventeen students and teachers in a few minutes in a public school that was doing its best to be safe.
We need more gun restrictions, and we need a national congress and state legislators who will stand up to the gun lobby and 2nd amendment extremists and enact those restrictions.
We are never going to get sensible gun control laws passed until we first overturn Citizen's United which will result in getting big money donors like the NRA out of our House and Senate. I'm so disgusted with the gun lobby and those they control with their dollars!
ReplyDeleteYou know I’m 100% behind you. I’m just as exasperated, but it seems nothing can be done so long as the NRA controls congress and the president.
ReplyDeleteThat's why we need to elect new legislators and congressmen and women and a new president. We need to monetarily support organizations that lobby for us, not for guns.
DeleteAnd you're absolutely right, of course.
DeleteAmen! It is pure and simple gun issue. After that there is a gun attitude where everybody thinks they must have the right to own guns.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a gun issue...just my opinion. It is a mental health issue...the shooter was reported to the FBI back in January and they did nothing. IF more gun laws are enacted only criminals will have guns.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that the problems began when women went to work instead of staying home and raising their children and taking them to church on Sundays. Fathers were more active in kids lives back then too...there was less divorce and only a few single mothers...now it is normal (I shudder to say that) to have single mothers.
So it is a mental health and family culture problem, not a gun problem.
We also didn't have have every Tom, Dick and Mary walking into gun shops and buying assault style weapons and high capacity ammo clips. It is a gun issue too.
DeleteThis is not a gun issue, it is a mental health issue. More gun laws would restrict honest citizens from having guns while the criminals will continue to have/steal/obtain guns. There is an excellent book out titled More Guns Less Crime.
ReplyDeleteThis is a gun issue. Even if you have a mental health issue, you can't go around killing that many people that fast if you don't have a high capacity weapon. As a honest citizen you can have your guns, but you don't need, nor should you have the "right" to own a weapon of mass murder.
DeleteI agree with you, Linda. It is both a gun issue and a mental health issue. It was exactly a year ago that Trump removed Obama's executive order that would make it hard for those with mental health issues to buy a gun. He signed it behind closed doors and never mentioned it. I despair for our country. No other civilized country in the entire world has these gun problems, so gosh, maybe it has something to do with our government belonging to the NRA?
ReplyDeleteWe need more affordable health care with an emphasis on mental health, we need stronger gun control laws and we need to stop showing these shootings. Every time there is a shooting all you see for days is 24 hour news coverage on them. If you want to be famous or infamous go on a shooting spree and you're guaranteed to get your face plastered on every news channel and paper in the world. Tougher sentencing and swifter punishment may serve as a deterrent also.
ReplyDeleteWe are not the only country with mental health issues but we are the only one with endless mass shootings. Yes it is a gun issue. Assault weapons whose only purpose is to kill humans should be confiscated, banned from production and melted into plow shares unless you are in law enforcement or the military.
ReplyDeleteOh, I wish we could!
DeleteGuns are for killing and in the wrong hands, innocent lives are taken. We need more than prayers and thoughts.
ReplyDeleteYou said it all perfectly. All I can add is an “amen.” I agree with every word you wrote. We must do something. We start by voting those taking large sums of money from the NRA. We then vote for those in favor of restrictions on guns. There is absolutely no reason on earth why anyone in the general public needs an assault weapon.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought of running for President?
Other developed countries have had mass shootings and were able to immediately put strong measures in place. I have read that in the U.S. one is 25 times more likely to be killed by a gun than in any other developed country. This is NOT how I want my country to be seen. This is NOT a statistic to be proud of in any way. This is NOT the mark of a great nation.
ReplyDeleteAwful, tragic. I don't understand the motivation for such random acts of violence.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. You have presented excellent arguments. May I suggest James Fallow's article in the Atlantic:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/deeply-saddened/553478/
He has a series of articles on the gun tragedy of the US but the above is in accord to your image at the top of the post, and it just delves into the hypocrisy of the NRA and Republicans.
I am heartened by the reaction of the kids to this event. There may be hope yet.