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The loudest shouting concerning the United States horrifying history of mass shootings too often breaks down to screams of “It’s the guns!” versus yells of “It’s mental health!”
Okay, for the sake of argument, let’s all say that school shootings and mass slayings of innocent Americans are due to nothing but the mentally ill. What do we do about it?
Simple answers would seem to be that the mentally ill shouldn’t have guns. I don’t see any politician running their campaign on a platform of arming the mentally ill. So, we’ve solved the issue; the mentally ill can’t have guns.
How do we define the mentally ill? Is it only people in mental facilities? No, that can’t be it. No mass shootings are happening there. We’ve got to focus on people who have a mental illness that are out and about in society.
Well, then the obvious answer is that anyone under a psychiatrist’s care gives up their right to be armed. Would the NRA and political right wing be willing to do that?
Maybe that isn’t enough either, plenty of shooters haven’t been under anyone’s care at the time of their shooting. Perhaps it needs to be that any American taking an antidepressant can’t possess a gun? But it isn’t only people dealing with depression that shoot and kill other citizens.
I can’t honestly see the NRA going along with restricting access to guns for anyone. Heck, they can’t even agree that people on the no-fly-list (suspected terrorists) should not be able to buy guns.
The NRA is all about upholding our beloved Constitution, specifically the 2nd Amendment, which follows:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
As I said, the NRA is all about upholding that sentence. Or is that they are all about making as much money as they can and don’t have a lick of concern about the consequences because there are two words in that amendment than I never hear from the gun lobby; well regulated.
So if the gun lobby likes to say it is a mental illness issue, but won’t do anything about making weapons harder to get even for that population, what might they go along with? Could it be they only want to lock more people up? Might it be anyone with a history or diagnosis of mental illness spends the rest of their days in some sort of NRA owned (because this will only happen if they find a way to make money off of it) mental health institution? I can’t see that happening either because any definition of the mentally ill is going to include plenty of NRA members too.
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I often fantasized about bringing a gun to school when I was in high school. I could always empathize with the kids I saw on the news who did become shooters. Someone doing that didn’t shock me much.
You know why it never happened with me? Because guns are not easy to get in Massachusetts where I live. That fact is what has saved lives. Nothing else. If anyone is serious about decreasing violence in this country, guns must be harder to get, not easier.
When I was growing up, I attempted to end my life on multiple occasions. In any sane society, I would never be allowed to buy a gun.
We actually did have some restrictions that made it harder for the mentally ill to purchase guns. President Trump revoked it last February. Where was that tweet?
I’m still looking for that sane society.
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Instead of mental illness, we should be focusing on mental well-being. In other words, we should assume that ANYONE could become a mass shooter, given a history of mental illness or not. Only considering people with a history of diagnosed mental illness is casting too small a net. Instead, let’s work on proactively promoting tolerance, inclusion, and healthy men. Let’s keep men from becoming isolated and stuck in the negative feedback loop of toxic masculine traits such as hyper-aggression, “weakness” avoidance, and extreme “lonerism.” There’s some bad male social programming still out there, and we need to start working on… Read more »
That’s the long play, but in the meantime, more innocent people will keep dying until laws are changed and enforced.
No need to assume anyone can become a mass shooter – anyone can.
In the short-term, we need to make becoming a mass shooter more difficult. Masculinity can’t be legislated, politicians need to start with what can be. Guns.