Unfortunately, the attention about the gun debate is being directed at how powerful the NRA is, instead of mourning the loved ones lost, from a senseless and preventable mass shootings we have been witness to over the last year. Putting the blame where it so clearly lies right now has been hijacked in an unfortunate political diversion tactic, that has become all too prevalent in America, and has been growing ever so larger since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Both sides are to blame to a degree, although coming at this issue as a conservative and a Licensed Federal Firearms dealer, I cannot help but think the political right is trying to combat, and failing miserably, the left’s constant and deliberate attacks on America and our values.
As I read the many stories coming out now about the shooters, their motives, ages, and backgrounds, it has become clear to me that they are being used as political pawns in a chess match that has the soul of our nation as the prize for whoever can demonize the other side to a greater degree. American politics used to be about championing your own stance and beliefs and showing where one differs from an opponent, but not anymore, American politics is a volatile shouting match, and the most boisterous side gets the headlines.
The real issue facing our society is the inability of the United States to deal with the epidemic of the mental health crisis, and now, in Uvalde, the police, and their inactions or inability to stop the shooter. We have made police forces all over the country second guess themselves, not sure whether or how to act in a tragic situation, the questions arise, how will they be scrutinized by the press? How will politicians react? Will politicians have the courage to back the police? And most importantly, what will the public think? We have moved our police from institutions of decisiveness and unity, into fractured organizations paralyzed by political fear.
Mental health issues plague the U.S. and many other Western nations, just as the coronavirus has, and if we could come together and fight against the disease of mental illness as hard as we did against COVID-19 we could defeat it, but politicians would rather focus on restricting our rights. The fact is that a person’s mental health is not part of the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Checks System known as NICS. So, if someone has an issue with their mental health that does not require hospitalization, and can be controlled with medication, that information is not transmitted to the FBI, and it should be.
From Adam Lanza and Sandy Hook to Stephen Paddock and the Las Vegas shooting at the Mandalay Bay, to the recent Uvalde Robb Elementary School shooting perpetrated by Salvador Ramos, these shooters exhibited signs they had issues with mental health and…. people noticed. Whether it was an uneasy feeling people had around them, to strange behavior, to social media posts telegraphing to the world what they planned to do, or a past history seeing a mental health professional, the signs of a possible tragedy to come were all there, and no one wanted to get involved, not even family.
So now, in Uvalde as I mentioned before, the police’s actions are being called into question, the timelines that are being given to the press, Gov. Abbott’s office, and other state and local officials isn’t matching up, and parents are screaming for answers. Can you imagine witnessing this tragedy first hand, knowing your child is inside that school, hearing the muffled gun shots, seeing the police doing absolutely nothing, get calls from frantic children trapped inside, and then watching President Joe Biden blame the NRA and lack of new gun control measures as to why your child was killed?? Pathetic.
Let’s get into that for a minute. I watched President Biden’s address to the nation, hoping he would be the consoler-in-chief, like Ronald Reagan did after the Challenger disaster, and other presidents who have had to face the nation and deliver bad news, but no, he couldn’t wait to get his licks in on gun control. He started off well, and I was hopeful, but soon he started to yap like a rabid Pomeranian, pushing his vile political agenda, while all any of us wanted were kind words and consolement from him.
Is there a need to have background checks extended? You bet there is! We need to immediately add mental health into the NICS system and keep guns out of the hands of those not mentally capable or responsible enough to own them. We need to have an infrastructure in place in the medical system that is not only equipped to handle these issues, but it must be treated as serious as any other major disease is. These kinds of tragic events will not stop until we make mental health one of the cornerstones of medicine, not an afterthought. Salvador Ramos needed help, and no one gave it to him, he was waiting for someone to notice how miserable he was, he was all alone in a world where he was surrounded by people, people he could not talk to.
Many people wrongfully think this is a 100% American problem, it is not. Look at Anders Behring Breivik who planned for nine years his attack in Norway, an extremely difficult country in which to purchase a firearm, with some of the most restrictive gun laws on the planet, yet with determination and long years of planning he managed to get what he needed, legally. He killed 77 people on July 22, 2011. Sixty-seven of those killed were by gunfire alone, as Breivik shot into a Workers Youth League summer camp. It was the deadliest attack on Norwegian soil since World War II. That is more people killed (67) in one mass shooting, than have been killed in the last 15 mass shootings in the United States. You have to go all the way back to April 15, 2021, before you can have more dead than in Norway in 2011. Let that sink in all of you who want to blame the 2nd Amendment.
So, let’s stop the talk about getting rid of the 2nd Amendment, more gun control for the law-abiding citizens, or some crazy ideas about restricting semi-auto firearms, and lets focus on how we solve these issues. People need to start speaking up, and if they do not, and they knew an individual was going to cause harm, and they do nothing, hold them accountable. Would you rather have a friend or a family member stop talking to you because you were concerned with some threat they made, or stop another tragic incident?
Social media plays a big part in all this too. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have no issues labeling conservatives as dangerous or evil, and we get our accounts locked and suspended all the time just because we have a political ideology different from them. We need safeguards in place to hold these companies responsible for content posted on their platform for which they do nothing until after the fact. Salvador Ramos posted pictures of a high-capacity magazine, as a gun guy I find that strange, why not the whole gun? There were little signs there, and banning a picture won’t do anything, but locking down an account can take away an avenue for these people to use.
There is no easy single answer, but I know that restricting rights of Americans that have never nor will ever commit a crime just because someone else does is not a solution. The answer does however lie in turning down the political rhetoric, stop screaming at each other, and start talking again. The gun debate is a hot-button issue, but it doesn’t have to be, both sides need to compromise, and if we listen to each other, we can get to a solution, one that will benefit all.
