Talking Tragedies and Gun Control

Hello Internet People.  I would like to begin this post by saying that my heart goes out to all those affected by all the horrendous tragedies that have taken too many innocent lives.  There are no words sufficient to express the pain and devastation wrought, not only to those directly affected, but to all of us, as human beings.  

What troubles me, is the instant reaction from so many people on both sides of the isle, to try to grab hold of guns and politicize these tragedies to further their own agendas.  I know there are many people who will try to argue the point with me, but guns are NOT the fucking problem.  And, unfortunately, gun laws are NOT going to solve the fucking problem.  I wish they would.  Fuck, that would be Awesome!  If we could just pass a law against people doing something and they would stop doing it then I would be 100% behind passing lots of fucking laws.  It does NOT work that way.  Never has, never will.

I am 45 years old.  For all but maybe a couple of years out of my life, I have lived in a house with at least one gun.  Most of them were not locked up, and many were kept loaded.  I, personally, have never owned a gun, I have never even fired one, but they have always been around me.  When I was a little kid I knew my Dad kept his rifles either under his bed or in his closet, it never would have occurred to me to touch them.  I was taught from a very young age that guns are dangerous and you do NOT play with them.  A little education tends to go a long way towards preventing problems, but only when that education is honest and based in reality.

I am not blind, ignorant, or naive.  I am certainly not saying that gun violence is not a problem in this country.  It is a big problem.  But gun violence is also a big problem in Mexico where they have very strict gun control laws.  I mean, it is already illegal for people to shot somebody, that doesn't seem to be stopping anybody.  I am not a fanatic, I am not opposed to reasonable, responsible, gun control legislation, but anything drafted in the wake of such tragedies is not going to be reasonable or responsible.  It is reactionary, and it is not even reacting to the real problems behind these tragedies.  The problem is not the accessibility of guns, the problem is the inaccessibility of, and the unwillingness to utilize, proper mental health care.  Guns didn't kill all those people, very sick people killed those people.  Sick people do not require guns to kill lots of people quickly.  There was not a single gun involved in the attacks of 9/11, and thousands of people died within a very short time.

Our country, our whole damn world, is broken.  Until we can learn to see beyond the easy, reactionary answers when tragedies occur, we will never stand a chance of stopping them.  No matter how many laws they write, no matter how many freedoms people willingly allow them to take from us, we will never really be safe.  Laws (as they are being written today) are about control, not safety.  And as someone much more important than I once said, "Those who are willing to sacrifice freedoms for safety, deserve neither." (Ben Franklin, I think)  And, they won't get either.

So, what is the answer?  How do we stop these horrendous events before they occur?  I hate to be the one to have to tell you all this, but, we can't.  As long as there are people on this planet there will be some among them who are sick in the head and they will create chaos and leave devastation in their wake.  We cannot stop that.  But we could do a lot to minimize it.  Starting with providing these sick people with the care that they require to prevent them from becoming such a threat to everyone else.  The one common theme that I see in all of the recent mass shootings in this country, is a bunch of young men whose families knew they were troubled, but were unwilling, or unable, to get them the treatment that they all desperately needed.  

If we want to prevent these tragedies in the future our investments should be into our people and their needs.  People who have hope for the future don't generally go around killing other people.  If this country put as much money into investing into the betterment of the people of this planet as they do in the killing of the people of this planet, maybe we could have a world where everyone could live in peace and harmony.  Just a thought.