Gun Control, Really?

I am extremely frustrated with hearing how our politicians and co-humans are so hell-bent on gun control. Gun control isn't the answer. The answer is mental health. Have we not noticed that all of these people who have committed these atrocities have major mental health issues? You can tell they have mental issues just by looking at their eyes. Have you noticed the eyes of these criminals? Yes, each of these people obtained guns to perform these attacks. Some of them obtained the weapons legally, but most did not.

These people have mental disorders that will drive them to commit these crimes whether they were able to obtain guns or not. If they're not able to obtain guns, they'll find another way to commit these crimes.

My point is that stopping or slowing these events doesn't begin with gun control. It starts with mental health. How do we determine those people who need professional help? To that question, I have no answer. I don't know. I, personally, have been treated for major depression for nearly sixteen years. As a person with a mental disorder, I know that I have to take responsibility for my own care. I need to make sure to take my medicine appropriately and faithfully. I need to let my psychiatrist know when things have changed or are changing. I need to talk to my family and ask them to let me know if they see any changes or become concerned. Unfortunately, not everyone who has a mental disorder is that conscientious.

My first question regarding these criminals is, did they receive any mental health care? Did they have insurance that would cover treatment? Or did these folks just "slip through the cracks" with no indication that there was any issue? James Eagan Holmes, who killed those people in Colorado at the midnight viewing of The Dark Knight Rises was obviously mental. You could tell just by looking at him. This is a man who should have been in a mental institution, not able to walk around free with us law-abiding citizens. But insurance doesn't necessarily cover anything to do with mental health. I don't know if he realized that he had issues, but I believe his parents did.

Personally, I believe there should be psychiatrists at every place of employment, especially large organizations, where a possible problem could be detected and shared with a group of mental health professionals to determine if the person would benefit from an institute admission. Sometimes those with mental issues are very good at covering up how they truly feel and what plans their crazy minds have created. This makes it impossible to know if someone has a mental disorder. In other words, there's no guaranteed way to determine and/or prevent these kinds of attacks from happening. It's one of those things that's out of our control. This would include gun laws. It doesn't matter how many laws are in place.

I know people who take medicine for depression and I always ask them how they're doing on their medication. I ask if they take their medicine faithfully. Most of the time they are honest with me and I will remind them how important it is to continue taking their medicine even when they feel good. I feel it's a right I have to ask. It doesn't mean I'm going to get a true answer, but I want to do the best I can to know whether or not I'm not working with someone who could become a threat. But again, it's not something I can control. I wouldn't mind answering the same questions for someone else, either.

If everybody did their jobs appropriately, I think more of these people would be "tagged." They could be tagged from their place of employment and/or their physicians. There should also be a way a spouse could get mental help should they be privy to any plans being made by their significant other. Those who review gun owner applications could also do research on the applicants by simple phone calls to places of employment to get a yes or no answer to the question of, "Is there any indication that the person should not be a gun owner"? This wouldn't be an opinion. This would be a simple phone call to the psychiatrist to get a yes or no answer. There wouldn't be any questions related to patient/doctor confidentiality, although I'm sure there would be an argument about it.

I just think that others need to take some responsibility in mental health determinations. I'm sure that someone who worked with each of these individuals, or spent any time with them, were well-aware that there was something off, mentally.

For example, if I were aware that a co-worker wasn't taking their medicine appropriately and hadn't been for quite some time, I'd inform my boss, who in turn could notify her boss, etc. As a matter of fact, I did report such a situation to my boss regarding a co-worker. I don't know if anything came of it, but that person has since gotten back on their medication and is functioning very well. I didn't feel like that person was a threat to their co-workers, but their illness effected their work.

When a person can't seem to reach out for help, that's when others need to step in. I know that at some point someone would take advantage of this position and make bad decisions. That's why I think there should be a safeguard with a group of mental health professionals making decisions related to the best steps to take to help the person.

And let's just talk about why we have so many people with mental disorders? I do believe it has to do with a chemical imbalance in the brain, but I also believe that outside influences contribute to that misalignment. What if you live with a very cynical person who always has an opinion about everything and is never really happy or satisfied with anything? After a certain period of time, that will wear on you. Who's to say that this wouldn't contribute to a chemical imbalance?

What if you are the victim of abuse as a child? That would definitely contribute to mental issues. Let's just talk about how we've had mental issues since the beginning of time. Think about Joseph's brothers who hated him so much that they decided to try and kill him. Hello. There wouldn't be any mental issue going on there, huh?

Mental health problems have always been around. It's how we deal with them that becomes part of the answer. Also, there's the fact that the population of the world has increased. So now we have potential for more people to exist with poor mental health.

So how do we begin to curb these mass killings? Let's start with treating mental health disorders while at the same time working on gun control laws. However, the reasons for which the laws are being suggested are for actions that should already be in place. Background checks and waiting periods are just a few examples. The bottom line is that if someone has set their mind on killing people, they will go to whatever extremes necessary to fulfill their plan. If guns aren't available to them, they'll find another weapon or means. It's not the guns that are killing, it's the people behind the triggers.