As usual, thinking this morning....hearing about "the presidents" meetings with groups this week regarding new gun laws. Meeting with gun grabbers today, gun rights groups tomorrow and tv/movie/video game groups Friday Where are the mental health groups? Did I miss that mention somewhere or is it once again being ignored? How many of these shooters were on luvox or adderall or prozac...so on and so forth. How many more shootings do we need to fix this problem? Eric Harris reported being suicidal and homicidal, the Va. Tech shooter was well known to be unstable, as were the Aurora and Sandy Hook shooters. Even as far back as Charles Whitman (he had "severe headaches") the indications are there that mental illness is a major cause in many of these events. Yet, many of them can walk into a store and buy a firearm (clearly not legally, as they lie on the form by saying they've never had a mental illness diagnosis) and pass the background check because there's no paper trail.
Blaming society rather than the shooter isn't the answer, and blaming the tool isn't either. No, the AR-15 isn't "just for killing" and "made for the military" as that rifle and its commercially available clones are specifically designed and built for the civilian market. There are several key operational components used in the AR-15 and the M-16/M4 rifles that, while they look the same, are NOT interchangeable. Great care was taken to ensure the AR-15 cannot easily become an M-16. Sure, if you have enough machining knowledge and several thousand dollars worth of machining equipment you can convert one, but the Discovery television program Sons of Guns showed us how extremely difficult it is, even when you DO have the know how.
Blaming media isn't the answer either. Millions of people play Call of Duty, watch The Sopranos and go see Texas Chainsaw 3D with no ill effect or plans to commit murder. However, clearly media does have some effect, otherwise we'd never see a single commercial. There is, without a doubt, a small percentage of people in this country who will see such media as a blueprint. Combine that with the mind numbing, zombifying effects of medications as mentioned above and you've got someone who is potentially very dangerous. Combine that with the fact the system isn't caring for them and creating a paper trail showing they're receiving or in need of treatment and you have scores of dead in theaters, malls and schools.
That's where we need to focus our attention now, that's what we need to reform. The system is where it starts. In California this week a man was arrested for posting threats to shoot up elementary schools. His home was searched and he was arrested. Numerous firearms were found, and he was promptly.........released. The threats weren't specific enough said the judge.
As long as that keeps up....your quaint little calls for more laws....as useless as the blame game is.
No comments:
Post a Comment