I just had to lend my two cents to the national conversation about the recent school shooting in Florida. A pretty smart guy I know posted on a thread on Facebook about what he thinks happened and why. A lot of what he says is true. However he starts his post with two comments I think are wrong.
"All gun control does is take legal firearms out of the hands of legal citizens."
No form of gun control I know of prevents legal citizens from buying and owning a gun. If effective, gun control laws should make the process more thorough and rigorous. Longer waits and tougher requirements should not be seen as too much to ask for from any responsible and legal American citizen who wants to own a firearm.
I believe in the 2nd Amendment and a person's right to own a gun. But with that right comes the responsibility and willingness to see that guns are distributed only after strict background checks are done as completely as possible. They should be willing to subject themselves to background checks. Not just for criminal records but one that includes screenings for mental health and emotional stability.
Another comment my smart friend made was,"Gun Control does nothing to stop thugs from getting guns."
I think he's wrong again. New York's once ridiculously high murder rate is plunging to historic lows, largely in part because of strict gun control. It seems to be working there. There are no gun stores or background check loopholes in Chicago. Yet their murder rate is off the charts. But the number of guns in the city has nothing to do with their gun control laws.
Just a short drive over the Indiana border, where they have some of the weakest gun control laws in the country, and it is easy for "thugs" in Chicago to go and buy all the guns they want. Studies show that most of the illegal guns confiscated in Chicago come from there.
Other than that, my friend is correct. All the gun control laws we can enact will not "limit or even eradicate these kind of shootings." Mental health issues can't be seen by the next door neighbor. No matter how bizarre or peculiar a persons actions may seem, that does not constitute reason for action on the part of law enforcement. As my friend said, a lot can be done as far as "school security, mental health, making our instant background check system better."
Another friend said..."But there was no credible threat. He didn't say he was going to do it.. Just said what career he wanted and while it probably should have raised flags you can't arrest someone for a statement like that." She's right, with few exceptions, "you can't arrest someone for a statement."
Unless a person has sought out or was treated some way by professional medical people, where a record of their psychological state could be tracked and would show up on a background check, law enforcement would have no way of knowing what a person who purchases a gun intends to do with it.
And yet another who posted said it best.
"A psychopath doesn’t think they have a problem ... nor does a narcissist. So they are hardly likely to seek help and if they are smart enough they will do nothing that flags them .. until it is too late."
But I'm just sayin'
What happened in Florida has nothing to do with gun control. It has more to do with population control. It has to do with the way Americans deal with perceived threats. It has to do with mental health, emotional instability and the triggers that can turn a kid, riddled with angst, into a mass murderer. An action easily aided by the ready availability of a gun.
Killing is a traditional American solution people in this country take to when they feel threatened. The average kid has seen over 18,000 murders on TV and in the movies by the time they are 18. Often the people doing the killings are portrayed as heroes, wreaking the justice that the legal system seems unable or unwilling to provide.
In the end there is only one solution to reducing the problem. It has nothing to do with changing gun laws. It has to do with changing ourselves as a people. In order to reduce and prevent such events we have to take a deep look at ourselves as a people. We have to change the way we and our children learn to think.
Sure, we could use less guns. We could do better at controlling them. But as long there is one gun, the possibility of another mass shooting exists. What we really need to do is get our hate under control. We can do more to control guns... but we really need to learn to control ourselves.
Guns are not the problem, we are.