Attacking Guns Is Not The Answer
Addressing Mental Illness Is Essential To Reducing Mass Violence
Banning guns will do nothing to address the problem of violence in our country. It is not inanimate objects that kill people, it’s people who kill people (cliche, but true)! Even if we were to simply ban guns we run the risk of ending up like countries such as Mexico, which are overrun with crime in part because they know law abiding citizens will be unable to defend themselves. In 2020 over 35,000 people were killed in Mexico, that’s 29 murders per 100,000 people. In the same year 24,000 people were murdered in the US which is 7.5 per 100,000 people. Although guns are technically legal in Mexico there are many restrictions, which makes it extremely difficult to obtain one. In fact there is only one gun store in the entire country! So when we hear about how the US has such a high murder rate and how its directly related to the number of guns we have, the facts simply don't support that.
If someone is dead set on harming people and they are unable to get a gun, they can use a bomb, a car, or other methods. It’s quite frankly a miracle we haven’t seen more bombs going off in the US. We need to deal with the real issue of mass violence, mental illness. We have a mental illness catastrophe in this country. And unfortunately dealing with mental illness does not advance anyone’s political agenda and isn't significantly profitable to any major lobby groups so there is no appetite to address it. But we need to do more to help the growing mentally ill population in this country.
The following are 10 ideas we can implement to mitigate mass violence. It's important to accept that we cannot eliminate all mass violence. Evil exists and there is no way to fully stop it, but there are so many ways we can reduce the likelihood of horrible mass shootings.
Ensure Cost Effective Mental Health Counseling Is Readily Available And Easy To Access
Although mental health services are usually covered by insurance plans, there are many who either do not know this or are unsure of how to access services. Additionally, while the 2008 mental health parity law makes it illegal for insurers to charge more for mental health services than for other health services, they can still only offer to cover what is deemed ‘medically necessary’, if they cover mental health treatment at all. Rehab treatment is also generally covered but when the average cost is between $2,000 and $25,000 per month even with good insurance there will still be a high cost to the patient. There are many who may feel ashamed or even object to the idea of talk therapy. Rather than ‘destigmatize’ mental illness, let's destigmatize receiving treatment for it. Those who need therapy should be able to know where and how to receive treatment and should feel comfortable doing so!
Stop Celebrating Mental Illness
When someone tells you they have cancer you don’t say how happy you are for them. When someone tells you they have cancer you will likely express your sympathy and ask if there’s anything you can do to help. This is how we should treat mental illness. We do not celebrate the illness itself, we celebrate the resolve and the strength of the person who is fighting back against it. There are many videos making the rounds on social media that showcase people who identify as having ailments from gender dysphoria to dissociative identity disorder. These people often ‘love bombed’ by those who praise them for their ‘bravery’ for coming out with real or imagined diagnoses. You would never expect to see this with a physical diagnosis such as cancer which is quite telling. Rather than being an impediment to the person’s life (which it is), mental illnesses are viewed as a positive thing. When someone states they have a mental illness we should focus on the health of the person and encourage the path toward alleviating it-not encouraging the condition to continue because it's politically or socially popular.
Bring Back Psychiatric Wards
There are so many people out on the street unable to take care of themselves. They are often severely mentally ill with no family or support group and nowhere to go. Obviously it will be very costly to open up and staff new psychiatric facilities but if we consider the cost that these people inflict on society by way of crime and degradation to neighborhoods and society as a whole the cost may very well be worth it. ‘Deinstitutionalization’ as it is called, began to occur in the 1950s when we began to close the current psychiatric hospitals which we had all over the US. As of 2012 there are only on average 14 beds per 100,000 people for psychiatric patients in the US and in some places even less than that. This means that many mentally ill people are out on the streets or in prison. A standard hospital or prison is not the best place for severely mentally ill people. In hospitals they are given medication and sent home, which is often the streets. And in prison they are not necessarily provided the mental health care they need. This creates a dangerous environment for us all. As the leader of the free world, we need to have a better way to treat those who are either temporarily or even permanently unable to take care of themselves. We cannot continue to have mentally ill people spend the entirety of their lives living on the street potentially hurting themselves or others.
Fund The Police
Activists rightly point out that police officers are expected to deal with mental health situations when they are not qualified to do so, this is correct. The answer isn't to have less cops, it's to add mental health providers to the police force. When an officer is called to a situation where there may be someone with mental illness they should be able to have the option to take mental health professionals or crisis response teams with them who can potentially take the lead if appropriate. Police departments need to have better training to understand how to deal with mentally unstable and potentially dangerous people and rely on the mental health community as needed.
Teach Children How To Be And Stay Resilient
There are so many in our society from the youngest ages up until college who cannot deal with even minor inconveniences, differing opinions, or disappointments. We’ve all seen the videos of college students saying they are unable to hear sentences, words, and opinions they do not agree with. They routinely call speech ‘violence’. Speech, words, opinions you do not like are not violence! It's very dangerous to suggest they are. The purpose of free speech is to be able to talk things out without violence. When we teach young people speech they disagree with is violence you are allowing them to think they can respond with violence and it's justified. It should be known to us ALL that violence is NEVER an appropriate response! Children, young people, and adults need to learn how to deal with sadness, differing opinions, and most importantly not getting their way. There WILL be hard times we all deal with. Young people need to learn how to deal uncomfortable emotions in a healthy way.
Stop Letting Violent Criminals Get Off Easy
We need to start throwing the book at repeat offenders and violent criminals. Drug offenders, petty criminals, young and first time offenders deserve the benefit of the doubt. We should focus on remediation for those people. We should focus on getting these people out of the life of crime and back to being productive citizens. We should encourage businesses to hire felons and hire homeless people who have fallen on hard times. And not as baggers at Safeway or greeters at Walmart. These people should be able to get decent paying jobs so they can not only have a job but they can have a career, buy a house, live a productive and happy middle-class lifestyle, like we all strive to do. Hard core criminals need to know they will be severely punished while those who have committed lesser crimes need to know they have a second chance.
Condemn Violence Equally
We need to have equal condemnation of violence across the political spectrum! We saw over the summer of 2020 politicians and figures in the media saying the riots and violence were justified because of the horrific police officer killing of an unarmed Black man. Some politicians even contributed to the bail funds of those who were arrested while rioting. Dozens were killed with over one billion dollars worth of damage and yet so many justified the violence. After the Justice Alito Supreme Court opinion leak on Roe v Wade there have been many pro-abortionists intimidating, threatening violence, and even attacking crisis pregnancy centers. There are many pro-abortionists promising a ‘summer of rage’. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created a memo warning about a crime wave coming from pro-abortionists. The DHS memo noted “The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics does not constitute domestic violent extremism or illegal activity and is constitutionally protected." If these were right wing pro-lifers promoting violence they would be called extremist in the harshest terms possible. But because these are likely left leaning political adherents they are referencing, their violence is yet again justified. What goes through the mind of someone on the right when they see violent behavior on the left be not only considered justified but celebrated? We found out on 1/6/2021 when Trump supporters stormed the capital. We cannot condone violence when it aligns with our political ideology while demonizing those on the other side of the spectrum who follow suit. There’s no reason for anybody to be promoting or committing violence! We are not in a war and let's try to keep it that way!
Upgrade Security In Schools
We have security at most government buildings, why not schools? This could be a teacher with military experience who's willing to carry or even volunteer veterans or former police officers to patrol the schools armed. There are many other ways to increase security such as single entry points, more secured doors, metal detectors. Are there other ways to fortify the building to ensure outsiders cannot enter? This doesn't need to cost billions and whatever the cost, there is no more important place to spend money than on our kids!
Treat Men Better
There is nothing wrong with being a boy or man. There is no such thing as toxic masculinity! There are good men and bad men. To suggest men are bad by nature is wrong! Testosterone is not bad and does not lead men to act violently. There has been an increasingly hostile environment toward men, especially White men. We treat men like they are monsters and attempt to feminize them to rid them of their natural tendencies. We need to start teaching boys how to be men rather than celebrate them pretending to be women! We need to stop shaming boys and men and empower them to be proud to be what and who they are. It is a dangerous narrative to teach boys there is something innately wrong with them!
Stop Divisive Political Hate
Hate is coming from both ideological spectrums but with more intensity from the political left. The media, politicians, activists, celebrities NEED to stop stoking the flames of extremism. No political party or movement has a monopoly on hate! If you think ‘your side’ is the side of compassion and kindness and ‘the other side’ is division and hate then you are no better than the devil you are pointing at! Extremism occurs in both political parties and to only talk about one side is to increase hate. Political division negatively affects us all. Those in leadership need to advocate for better understandings between groups and to stop this ‘us vs. them’ mentality! We can have significant and passionate differences without wanting each other dead.
We instinctively want to make sense of things. It's hard for us to comprehend why senseless violence happens, especially when it happens to children. But sometimes horrific things happen for no reason. Sadly, we have seen so many horrific acts committed by our fellow man. This will never change. Those of us who subscribe to Christian beliefs are familiar with the story of Cain and Abel, where the 3rd person alive on the Earth killed the 4th person. Whether you believe in this biblical story or not, the point is even when there are only 4 people, there will be violence. Violence is just part of our human nature and will never go away but we can all do our part to mitigate it!