Gun control

I have been thinking about this topic quite a lot recently. It seems like every week there is another mass shooting in the US, though most of them are not widely reported. It is often said that if we could only get stricter gun laws passed, these kinds of incidents would not happen (as was the case in Australia after the Port Authur massacre). I do not believe this would make much of a difference.

Even if the only guns available in the US were single shot bolt action rifles, with a good vantage point and a busy location a lone attacker could shoot and kill dozens of people. I feel an unfair focus is put on automatic weapons like the AR-15. Hell, 2 pistols would wipe out up to 30 people before you'd even have to reload.

The issue is not the access to guns but the social sickness of America. The widespread inequality, the belief, pushed forward by the media and many politicians that controlled violence is the answer to problems and the widespread view that America is the land of the free and brave. They have the might and they are right. Also, how utterly terrified a large portion of its population are. This creates a need for guns and it also creates and makes worse the kinds of mental health issues that very often lead someone to commit a mass shooting.

This is also why politicians find it hard to deal with the issue. None of them want to acknowledge how culpable the government is in cutting benifits and wages etc that lead to depression and frustration and crime.

I definitely don't believe gun control is the true issue here. It is definitely mental illness, the stigma around it, and the lack of a proper system socially to do what it takes to care for people. We are a nation that is solely focused on medicating for profit and to mask symptoms. I was put on anti anxiety and anti depressants as a 15 year old girl, when it turned out to be a hormonal problem that could have been fixed and support naturally (as I'm now doing). Doctors are quick to prescribe, to get their patients out the door, and make profit. Of course, not all doctors are this way, not all are bad apples, but you get my point.

There was a knife attack that wounded and killed over a dozen people before the attacker was stopped. It's not a weapon issue, it's a heart issue.

Working with the public and the mentally ill, I truly have a newfound respect for our laws and see the brokenness and flaws in them as well. We need to stop highlighting and glorifying the attacker, and we need to discuss the mental health issues. We need to focus on building people up, instead of tearing them down. We need to realize that the medications we put our children on aren't healthy, but very dangerous. Yes, there are very real hormonal and chemical imbalances, and mental illness is a VERY real thing that manifests itself in many different ways, but over-medicating society as a whole is absolutely going to continue devastating our population.

I would argue that some people need meds, I know I did and they helped me so much with my depression and anxiety

Absolutely they do, I agree with you. But so often we throw meds at people without second guessing.

^good point Britt, it's getting so bad now especially with the kids, even the teachers themselves are suggesting this one or that one should be on meds because they are hyper, kids usually are, and i believe if you look at most of the past two , three years of shooters , most of them were medicated as a child......Kevin, you hit the nail on the head, gun control isn't the answer, and actually trying to introduce it may create more massive shootings then we've ever seen before......it's not the guns, it's the people, yes there are a lot of things we could say is responsible, but the bottom line is, we are responsible for our own actions, blame the person pulling the trigger, nothing else......Timothy Mc Veigh didn't use a gun, the suicide bombers aren't using guns when they blow people up, the IRA didn't use guns for mass killings, so yes, guns are only a means, the people provide the ways.....

Sitting here in amazement. Shocked even !!! Such intelligent postings. I come back here from time to time and check things out. I used to go to another writing site also and after the first posting here the young man would have been slammed to the point of running him off the site. You all have made me smile for the day. Great job. Continue having an open mind but stand by your beliefs. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and safe Holiday Season.