Thank you for this letter. I cannot agree more. There are definite characteristic that each of these mass shooters have exhibited. More funding for people with mental illness would be a good place to start. Having more education available on the characteristics would also be helpful. I personally believe these mass shootings where planned out and executed by very sick individuals and their had to be people in their lives that knew? There where signs and getting help should not be so hard. Medicating people and then putting them back out on the streets is not the answer for the mentally ill. We all should become more aware and involved. We should become good at preventative measures. The question needs to be asked why are there so many mass shooters now? the level of violence that kids see today really blows me over. Being a child in the sixties I know there was violence but the kids seemed not as exposed to it and far more innocent. I really feel sorry for the children of today. A child hood seems to also be a thing of the past. I have gone to movies that are extremely violent and inevedently if you look around some parent decided it was ok to bring a child. I also believe the constant stream of violence kids are exposed to is not good for developing minds. The electronics for kids should not be used as a babysitter. The kids of today cannot even take a ride in a car without being plugged in seems like there is a time to shut off the tv, cell phones, and start engaging in actual conversations. Teaching some compassion towards others can also be done in so many ways. Teaching a child to respect other living things like the family pet is also a good way to start. I see a lot of young parents that allow the children to use a animal as a play thing not as a living breathing creature. These are just some observations. I think we as a society need some active prevention. I do not want to become good at grieving.
<blockquote>And the real problem with the logic is that the problem is not the tool but lies with the person who at the end of the day is wielding it."</blockquote>
The problem with your logic is that other tools have other, constructive, purposes. And while a gun could be used as a doorstop or such, no one buys it for that, and the purpose it's made for is to kill and nothing else.
Restrictive gun laws means fewer guns lying around where deranged people can get their hands on them. Like in Newtown just now. People with knives or blunt instruments kill far fewer people than people with guns do. And if dumping more and more guns into a society already saturated with guns and intoxicated with gun glamor isn't itself deranged, I don't know what is.
It's time to ditch the Yankee Doodle hats and amend the Second Amendment.
I agree there needs to be more National focus on the types of drugs prescribed to children just to calm them down. One reply mentioned that there may only be 1000 cases were the shooter was identified as a patient prescribed medications to control their mood or psychological condition but isn’t 1000 cases enough to point out that the FDA needs to get involved and question the effects these drugs have on a person’s psychological health. I am all for gun control but the discussion takes precious time away from the real issue of mental health.
Guns DO kill people, and assault weapons do it devastatingly fast and in a horrifically thorough way. The Constitution does not guarantee the right to own assault weapons. They need to be banned, as they were from 1994 to 2004, and as soon as possible.
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