Yesterday, we suffered one of the most horrible school shootings in american history. And already not only is it being politicized but both sides are blaming each other in the most illogical manner you can imagine. The pro gun side is calling for armed teachers while the anti-gunners are saying, that we should ban guns to prevent this sort of thing from happening, because incidents like the one in china, don't leave kids dead.
Well i'm sorry to tell you all but you are all wrong. you are looking at a single incident and drawing shallow minded conclusions without looking first at the cause. Is it possible this wouldn't have happened without guns? yes, is it possible we might see a drop in death rate if we were somehow magically able to get rid of all the guns? yes. But the guns don't get up and shoot people, they have to be touched by human hands to do that, and there is a reason everytime someone picks up a gun to shoot someone, and it is that reason we should be fighting.
In this shooting, like so many other's it's obvious that mental illness is a major part. Now you can cry about fixing the NICS and the background check all you want, and truth be told it's a good idea. but even if you do that you still wind up with crazy people bombing clinics, driving cars through crowded places, or worse releasing sarin gas on a crowded subway system. So it is not the fault of the NICS or the gun laws at all. The problem is that these people are sick and not getting treatment.
The first step in solving this crisis, is fixing our broken mental healthcare system, and yes this is going to be hard, very hard.After decades of defunding and deregulation in the name of higher profits, our healthcare system in general, and in particular mental healthcare system is in shambles. Not only does the system need to be fixed but it needs to be accessible to all. But that's not the only issue, fixing our healthcare system and making it more accessible is only half the battle. The other half is getting people to actually use it. That means something government cannot do, changing stigmas. Yes that's right, a horrible problem with society is going to take societies input, you cannot just sit back on your lazy boy and pretend government is going to fix it all. You have to change. You have to stop ostricizing people who are in need of mental healthcare, you have to comfort and assist people in going to get that treatment.
And when we have done all this, we will have stopped a small percentage of crime. The vast majority is drug/gang related. Now, few people join gangs because it's fun. And even fewer join when they come from middle class or higher economic classes. The problem is income inequality, we have crushed the poor to the point that they are desperate for money, and that often means gangs. If we as a nation want to solve our violence problems we have no other choice but to look at this, the main root cause of violence, ignorance and poverty. Study after study shows strong correlations to lack of education and poverty to crime. Now, in a nation that has outsourced a majority of it's manual labor overseas we have no other excuse but to educate our poor and elevate them to skilled job sets. Not only will this educate the people making them less violent, but also raise them out of poverty and away from gangs.
Furthermore the drug trade is violent for a reason, and that reason is they do not have the court system to resolve issues. If we legalize, and tax, not only do we cut spending and raise revenue, but we also eliminate the need for that violence in our society. So I ask you, are new gun laws, really what we need? Or do we need to fix the core issues here, hard though they may be?
