Monday, December 17, 2012

Guns

It's been a few days since a crazy young man killed his mother, then went to an elementary school and killed a classroom full of children.  I've been watching Facebook, and there's a tremendous increase in people talking about gun control.  I don't believe stricter gun laws would keep firearms out of the hands of crazy people and criminals.  They aren't getting their guns legally already.
I don't think looser gun laws would help either.  I read one post in which someone said, "One person armed and well-trained in that school could have stopped the bloodshed." Well, ok, but are we really going to start putting armed guards in every elementary school?  Give guns to the teachers? How long before one of those armed guards/teachers turns out to be a crazy?
I think that if a "meaningful change" comes out of this tragedy in the form of a policy, it should affect healthcare. It's estimated that 1 in 3 Americans suffer from some form of mental illness, whether it's paranoid schizophrenia or attention deficit or depression. More of those people need easier access to mental health services. It won't avert every crazy person from snapping and doing horrible things, but it might help some of them.