It’s been four days since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL where 19 year-old Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people in cold blood while using an AR-15 rifle. TV and social media have been ablaze with everyone getting on their soapboxes to instigate arguments with each other about gun control and mental health issues (Americans fighting with each other. Sounds exactly like what the Russians set out to do with their election interference).
On one side, you have people shouting “Do something!” or “Ban AR-15’s!” The common rebuttal is “It’s not a Gun Issue, it’s a Mental Health issue!” I get it…emotions are still high due to the freshness of this tragedy, and folks want to lash out to get their point across, which leads to the ugliness we’re witnessing.
Unfortunately, I am here to tell you that both sides are wrong, and both sides aren’t doing any good with their back-and-forth rhetoric.
Do something? Why didn’t President Obama do anything in his eight years in office? People like to complain that seemingly “good” bills don’t get passed by Congress, but what most people don’t realize is that corrupt politicians often ruin good bills by trying to sneak in pork barrel items on these bills, rendering them impassable. Until we get the greed and corruptness out of Washington, we’re never going to see “good bills” get passed.
Ban AR-15’s rifles? It’s a noble idea, but look at the Virginia Tech shooter, who loaded up on hand guns (he killed 32 people with 2 hand guns…no rifles). Ban all guns? Besides the fact that the 2nd Amendment will never get reversed, if it did, those intent on causing harm will instead build a bomb (like the Boston Marathon terrorists), use a knife/machete (like they did in China and Japan), or use a vehicle to carry out their attack. Someone intent on committing a mass murder is going to find a way to attempt it one way or another. Thousands were killed on 9/11 thanks to the use of simple box cutters. Just like a bad guy is going to get their hands on drugs (remember, those are banned too), they’ll get their hands on weapons to carry out their attacks. Some will counter argue that passing a ban on AR-15’s will reduce the number of people killed. That is false (again, look at the Virginia Tech shooter), but even if it were true, you’re saying a few dead is better than a bunch dead? Any dead is unacceptable.
Can there be political action taken on gun control? Sure. We can ban items such as bump fire stocks (used by the Vegas shooter). We can improve the background check process by passing laws getting all agencies on the same page with updated information so that when a check is initiated, it is as comprehensive as possible. We can better enforce current laws. The FBI can do their job by actually vetting tips when they receive them instead of issuing apologies for not following up on multiple tips about Cruz. You want to factor mental health into background checks? That’s tricky due to existing HIPAA laws.
There’s also been an uproar about politicians that are funded by the NRA. The truth is, the NRA ranked as the 154th biggest lobbyist in 2016 per opensecrets.org). They do spend a lot of money to promote their cause outside of the political arena, but not as much to politicians or political parties as some would lead you to believe.
We need to identify and fix the root cause of these issues. It’s not guns, it’s not mental health. It’s bigger than that. It’s a societal issue. It’s how we treat each other and how we cope with life’s problems. It’s about pop culture glorifying gun violence. It’s about how we’ve removed morality from the public domain because God (of the religion of your choice) may be offensive to someone.
Other than the 3 terrorist attacks which were executed out of pure evil and hatred (Ft. Hood, San Bernardino, and Orlando), the other recent mass shooters had backgrounds of being lonely outcasts of society. These shootings have essentially been acts of despair and last resort cries for help and attention due to loneliness and a sense of not fitting in.
If we can identify those lonely outcasts early (Do they sit alone during lunch at school? Do they self-mutilate/cut themselves like Cruz did?) and help bring them back off the fringe of society, we’ll reduce the number of possible culprits, which is really what’s best for them and for society. This means we need better parenting and better education to engage in and be aware of what’s going on in our youth’s lives.
Now let’s be clear…there’s always been kids that were outcasts on the fringe of society…I remember them from my high school in the mid’90’s. And while they had issues, they never resorted to mass killing. The internet era (late 90’s to today) of pop culture has normalized bullying, gun violence, and the escalation of violence in general via music, movies, TV, and video games. Americans have always had guns (and AR-15’s since the 1950’s, so that’s nearly 50 years of the AR-15 not ever being blamed as a problem), but the “modern era” of mass shootings didn’t really start until the Columbine incident, which coincided with the internet era of pop culture and God being removed from public spaces.
Say what you want about religion (heck, I go to church once a year), but just about every mainstream religion sets forth some sort of moral code that it’s followers should live by (i.e. The Ten Commandments). Maybe if we didn’t take God out of schools and public places, we’d still have the morality to reduce bullying behavior that pushes people to the edge, and to have those on the edge avoid going over it.
The solution?
- Smaller classroom sizes to allow teachers to better interact with and know their students so they can identify those that are being isolated.
- Better communication between educators and parents when those that are being isolated could use some extra love and attention.
- More family dinners and less divorces to keep parents engaged in their children’s lives so they know if they’re exploring violent types of entertainment.
- Hollywood taking responsibility by reducing or eliminating the violent content they disperse in music, movies, TV, and video games that glorifies violence and gun use.
- Pass legislation that improves the background check process and bans modification tools that make guns automatic (minus the pork barrel!)
- Citizens treating each other with respect, even when they disagree. Remember, our kids our looking up to us adults and absorb and mimic our behavior.
- Pushing back against the liberal agenda of removing God from schools and public places. Whether you believe in God or not, the morals instilled via religion are sorely lacking in today’s society. I think it’s a fair trade to regain our moral compass if we have to deal with mainstream religion in some public spaces.
What happened in Parkland was a preventable tragedy. Preventable because the police were called to his house dozens of times. Preventable because the FBI failed to act properly on multiple tips. Preventable because nobody took the time to take action when this young man was clearly troubled. Instead of helping him, they kicked him out of school and further off the fringe of society. The push for new gun laws is an honorable endeavor, however that’s just a feel-good, yet lazy approach to fix the real problem. Bad people will still find ways of doing bad things, so we as a society need to work to keep people from becoming bad people. The society we have created is the root cause of this evil, not guns or mental health.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their loved ones, and if you choose to comment on this article, we ask that you keep the comments respectful and civil.