A body at rest tends to stay at rest. The same applies to a brain, my brain anyway. I go through these incredibly productive periods and then some force acts upon me and inertia sets in. The force acting on me today is the horror of a massacre in an elementary school in a small town, far removed from the dangers of the big city. As I try to wrap my head around what happened, I find myself in a state of paralysis because I see no end to the violence.
Crazy people do things like shoot up innocent children. Why did the Newtown, Connecticut, shooter have access to so many powerful guns? Because his mother owned them and apparently didn't keep them locked up even though her son who lived with her was mentally disturbed. She supposedly kept the guns for her own protection. Fat lot of good they did her.
The real problem, as I see it, is that we have an epidemic of mental illness in the United States of America. Why is that? The long answer is, it's complicated. The short answer is that we are a fearful people and becoming more so. We no longer have confidence that our law enforcement officers can protect us from the growing dangers threatening our well-being. Lots of people, perfectly sane people, purchase guns to protect themselves. The way they see it is that danger lurks around every corner, behind every door, up every tree, and so they keep a gun at the ready. I doubt that most of these guns are effective in preventing crimes, but I guess having them makes people feel better.
I do not advocate banning guns because that would just push the market for guns and ammo underground and create a whole new world of problems. As far as I am concerned, people can have as many guns as they want AS LONG AS NOBODY GETS HURT. So, how do we keep guns out of the wrong hands while allowing Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights? This may be the most important philosophical conversation we as a nation ever have because until something changes, more innocent people will be mowed down as they go about their lives, and it will happen with increasing frequency because the mental health crisis in our country gets worse every time a shooting occurs.
Adam Lanza was diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrom. This did not cause his violent behavior per se. It is quite likely that he was depressed, perhaps because of being bullied as a child at the school where he acted out his inner rage. Lanza needed treatment -- medicine, therapy, a residential program, something -- but did not get it. The responsibility for this likely rests with his mother who, given her own fondness for assault weapons, was probably not aware of the message that her hobby communicated to her disturbed son.
Some of my neighbors feel that there should be more guns, not fewer. These same people are devout Christians of the born-again variety who spend countless hours in Bible-study and prayer. I don't get it. Jesus was supposed to have said that we should turn the other cheek rather than hit back. Unless I am misinterpreting everything I ever heard in church and Sunday school, Jesus would probably be distressed that his followers brought their pistols to church, just in case.
In the words of the great Pogo Possum, "we have met the enemy and he is us."
