The Culture Wars: Guns and Mental Health

This is a series speaking primarily on the social changes regarding generational attitudes toward certain things where we, at one point, held a more conservative position on the matter. Sometimes, it's worth noting that such changes can be referenced to earlier events that may lead to something else.

GUNS & MENTAL HEALTH

School shootings are really rampant nowadays. Either that or there's a higher level of media coverage of such actions. Between school shootings, movie theaters being targets, malls, and other places...we're seeing a string of incidents with some connections: guns and mental health. Every individual who committed such actions wielded heavy firepower which could have been easily obtained with a simple background check.

None of these individuals had a prior history of violence or a background where a red flag could have been issued to suggest that this person is a dangerous individual and should not have been granted access to any weapons. We're dealing with people with mental health issues and this is where the complications do come in.

Between the NRA and other gun-toting advocates of the Second Amendment and the growing mental instability of our younger men (and women), we're listening to talking heads, both influenced by votes and money to suggests that we should either curb or stop the sales of guns, especially high caliber weapons, combined with more gun restrictions or less restrictions and allow more public places and people to bring their guns into places to feel safer.

With a fractured and muddle Congress, it seems like such laws won't pass due to lobbying, but eventually, we will have to get to the bottom of it and engage in this conversation once more....

The social zeitgeist may eventually lead to another static showdown where both extremes are less likely to make a dent in the debate on gun laws and mental health, especially when there are so many difficulties surrounding the issue on background checks. Simply enforcing the laws aren't easy, especially since it's compounded with state laws and federal laws, which are often in conflict with one another. And yet, we undermine the mental health of this nation.

So here I ask...

Where do we go from hereon out? Should we simply allow more restrictions or place our concentrations elsewhere? Should we start investing in mental health facilities and mandate that people should get one before determining whether they are equipped to have a gun?

As for guns, how far do we need to go in order to maintain order and safety? Or are we simply feeding into paranoia?

 

guns in america...

I don't like guns because they turn cowards and predators into "big men", but in the u.s., i'd say the genie is out of the bottle, the horse has left the barn, the toothpaste is out of the tube.

(actually it's never really been in the tube in america, but anyway...)

Only thing left to try is lift all the laws and let everybody have what they want. Even in a place as densely populated as nyc, let them have all the guns they want. Even rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns. Nukes if you want'em.

Try that experiment and see how it works out. Eventually the country will reach some kind of equilibrium. A smoldering, blood-soaked equilibrium. After it breaks apart of course.

 

Plus those "big men" have members who is small as a bullet.