Mental Health Care Stimulus
As a nation, we have an incredibly pathetic attention span, and our President has babbled about new ideas before that never become anything; therefore take this with a grain of salt. After the tragic killing spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week, President Obama has announced he’ll be adjusting mental health and gun laws “without delay.”
In a statement from the White House, Obama said, "This time words must lead to action," adding, "The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be and excuse for doing nothing." Moving forward, Obama has tapped Vice President Biden "to spearhead White House efforts to mold new gun and mental-health policies following last week's Connecticut shootings, a choice that could prove crucial to getting changes through Congress," according to Wall Street Journal.
The "Federal Assault Weapons Ban" expired in September 2004, which prohibited "the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms." The bill was never reinstated in President Obama's first term. Arguably, civilians have no need to possess this type of firearm, however it can also be argued that even if it were outlawed these cold-blooded killers would still find a way to get their hands on the lethal firearms.
The important part of this new mission for Biden is focusing attention on mental illness, and psychological background checks when acquiring a firearm. The reason we ask "Why?" is because we'll never understand the reason someone could kill so many innocent civilians. They are not like you and me. A mother of a mentally ill son, Liza Long, wrote a letter on Gawker explaining the fear she lives with everyday, and having to protect her other children from their volatile sibling. It's heartbreaking and incredibly frightening. These children have nowhere they belong, and no one around them who is like them. Their illnesses have never been acknowledged and our blind eye has led to multiple massacres of innocent people.
Mental illness and guns are a lethal combination and we've "forgotten" to address the issue too many times. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban needs to be reinstated, and we need to address the mental illness issues for the sake of humanity. It's not fair to the victims' families, and it's not fair to mothers like Liza Long who live in fear and don't have the support they need. If this isn't a wake up call, we're never going to get it. This problem is far deeper than the NRA, and the Second Amendment. If our nation gets "bored" with this topic once again, we have no hope in preventing another massacre.
Banning ‘assault weapons’ ain’t gonna keep them out of the hands of the type of bastard that will murder innocent folks. There’s a thing called the black market where all sorts of illegal items can be bought. Guns are one of those items. Someone planning an attack on a school, shopping mull, theater, or church ain’t gonna worry about it being against the law to have an ‘assault weapon’. None of them seem to plan on coming out if it alive. So a ban on ‘assault weapons’ ain’t gonna to worry them one bit. They’ll just go to an illegal gun dealer who doesn’t care if the person buying it is 8 years old or 100 years old. Or if they are sane or insane. Just as long as they can come up with the money. Just like dope dealers.
We do need to revamp our mental health care system though. The problem is it’ll still be run by the same kind of dumb ass psychologist that back in the 70’s decided that instead of institutionalizing the most severe cases that they could be treated at home with drugs. This has put a hole heap of very dangerous folks out on the streets to murder innocent people.
We need a system where the most dangerous mentally ill are institutionalized. Not only to protect the public, but the persons family. Most of the shooters over the last 10 years or so have killed members of their families before gong on their rampages.
“civilians have no need to possess this type of firearm,”
This is true only if you ignore the actual purpose of the second amendment. Here’s a clue. It’s not about hunting, or target shooting.
Posted by: dbs at December 25, 2012 3:30 PMI find it interesting that the left is SO upset with the right of Americans to own guns; but they are absolutly silent on violent video games and movies. It has been brought up several times and yet nothing from the left. Are violent video games and movies instilling violence in the hearts of America’s children, or not? That is the question. My guess is that most of the liberals on WB are barely out of they teens and spend most of their time playing video games. “Take their guns, but leave my video games alone”…
Posted by: george at December 26, 2012 4:58 PMgeorge
Don’t you know that violent video games and TV shows are protected as free speech by the first amendment? But guns are questionably protected by that pesky old outdated second amendment?
What I find interesting is how the left wants to use the Constitution only when it serves them. Other than that it’s an outdated piece of paper.
I don’t think there’s been any studies done on the correlation between violent video games and violent crime. But when someone like that idiot up there in New Town plays these games hours on end, and then goes to a school and murders 26 innocent people, I have to believe that there is a connection.
More liberal stupidity in action.
http://news.yahoo.com/la-offers-groceries-guns-annual-buyback-202748214.html
Turn in your stolen, and used in crimes guns. No questions asked. Gee wonder if the stolen one will be returned to their rightful owners ? LOL !!!!
Posted by: dbs at December 27, 2012 8:32 AMdbs
Don’t you know that the LA police are checking serial numbers right now so they can return any stolen guns to their rightful owners. :)
They most likely won’t admit it but most the guns turned in most likely are broken beyond repair. I have to wonder how many guns that were turned in were used to murder someone and the perpetrator got the cops to pay them for the privilege of destroying the evidence.
Here’s another one.
http://news.yahoo.com/three-jersey-police-officers-shot-134330961.html
The press in the second to last paragraph feels the need to bring up the Newtown shootings as if this is just another incident requiring the need for more gun control. Also notice the fact these cops were shot with one of thier own guns is conveniently left out of the headline. I think we need to post armed guards at every police station.
Posted by: dbs at December 28, 2012 12:18 PMYour wrong dbs. What we need to do is ban cops from having guns. That way the criminals won’t be shooting them. And of course all these violent criminals will peacefully let the cops arrest them if the cops didn’t have guns.
Posted by: Ron Brown at December 28, 2012 6:23 PMMichaelMears is right. No one “needs” an “assault weapon.” No one needs alcohol, violent video games, or violent movies either.
How about you be consistent MichaelMears. If you are going to ban guns, why don’t you ban alcohol, violent video games, and violent movies too?
If you are going to argue for banning guns, you cannot be logically consistent and not ban alcohol, violent video games, or violent movies as well.
And do not tell me that there is no connection between alcohol, violent video games, and violent movies and violence.
These so-called “assault weapons” account for less than 2% of gun deaths. More people are killed by alcohol than by “assault weapons.”
Why not ban alcohol MichaelMears? Answer me that and maybe I will take you seriously.
Posted by: Joseph at December 30, 2012 7:42 AMIn the history of man and gun, the gun has remained constant. Always at the mercy of man’s influence to launch its projectile at the intended target. And as far as history is concerned, man has always determined the target, whether it’s lawfully, unlawfully, negligently, or recklessly. To blame a gun for a man’s decision is to foolishly attribute free will to an inanimate object. The ability to carry or own a firearm is a right and not a commandment, and I respect the rights of any individual to choose not to carry or own a firearm. I only ask that the same courtesy be granted to me when I choose to exercise my right to do so.
Al Capone proved that a Louisville Slugger made a good “assault weapon.” Ironically, what made Al Capone such a powerful mobster was the Eighteenth Amendment and Alcohol Prohibition. There is an old aphorism that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. Like alcohol, these co-called “assault weapons” are very popular and millions are sold every year. If you ban them, like alcohol, people will buy them illegally. We cannot ban something and hope the problem goes away. We must look deeper and stop blaming and banning inanimate objects.
Posted by: Joseph at December 30, 2012 7:44 AM“It’s not the arrow; it’s the Indian.”
Alcohol,video games, bullying and mega clips,etc. no doubt contribute to mass murders, but not all people who drink, play violent games all day, get poked in the chest or own mega round weapons turn violent and kill.
Family members, friends, teachers, co-workers and professionals know people who need psychiatric help; people who scare them; make definitive statements about intent to harm others; are not functioning properly; show violent tendencies. These people need to be tested and observed by professionals and removed from society if they are deemed capable of “twisting off”.
We spend $30K each year to incarcerate a non-violent drug dealer in prison, yet we just turn our backs on time bombs living amoung us.
Posted by: John Johnson at December 30, 2012 9:40 AMCertain people are not permitted to drive cars, trains, ships, planes, We are a nation organized around laws, most with good purpose that serve to protect the public interests.
The young woman who purchased and passed a gun to this most recent shooter lied on the application to purchase the gun. Probably won’t bring a very stiff sentence. Laws must be revised to support societal change.
We need a law designed to assign stiff penalties to a person who provides a gun to another person while bypassing licensing authorities. Perhaps we have such a law but is waning through lax enforcement.
Laws that address such crime after the fact does nothing to help those who are killed. We need preemptive laws with limited civil rights infringement when it comes to gun violence, IMO.
Posted by: Roy Ellis at December 30, 2012 5:23 PMRoy
Laws that address such crime after the fact does nothing to help those who are killed. We need preemptive laws with limited civil rights infringement when it comes to gun violence,
Just how are the cops gonna know if someone is going to kill someone or not?
The law tells you ya can’t do something. Until you break that law the cops can’t arrest you.
Laws don’t prevent crime. They just set penalties for breaking the law.
Just how you plan to preempt gun violence? Again until a law is broken the cops can’t make an arrest. Gun control laws won’t work. We have gun control laws up the yen yang and not one of them has stopped the shootings over the past few weeks. Maybe the folks that did the shootings should’ve had guns, but that didn’t stop them from having them.
When you figure out how to preempt crime, please let every know. I’m sure the cops would love to use it.
Ron, I don’t know squat about gun law. But, it seems rational to have preemptive gun laws toward minimizing crime committed with firearms, just as there are similar laws for most everything that can be considered dangerous if misused.
I don’t know of any laws to control knives but there are laws to control fire, poisonous drugs, etc. If you can’t see well you may not be permitted to drive but, you could still legally possess a gun, a knife, baseball bat, etc.
Preemptive may be the wrong word. Limit, minimize, reduce could be a better choice. By putting restrictions around driving permits we can reduce vehicle accidents.
Persons with known social disorders have been known to engage in criminal acts. Would it be wrong to prevent such a person from possessing or using a firearm thru licensing and sales regulations? Goes to the ‘greater good’, IMO. A person with a knife or car can take out a few people but nothing like a person with a rapid fire gun.
Posted by: Roy Ellis at December 31, 2012 12:01 PMRoy
OK, we pass a law that says that mentally disturbed folks can’t have a fire arm. Now just how do you plan to enforce it? We have laws in every state that says that felons can’t have firearms. And guess what. Felons still have them. That boy that shot those firefighters up in New York was a felon. He managed to get his hands on guns. What would make you think that a nut case can’t?
I know that most y’all just want to try to keep things like New Town from happening again. I want to keep it from happening again too. Y’all want to pass gun laws that really don’t do much good. I want to see dangerous mental cases locked up so they don’t have the chance get their hands on a gun, legally or illegally.
I know that nothing we do is going to be 100% fool proof. But just passing a law saying that mentally ill folks can’t have a gun and leaving the most severe cases on the streets won’t solve the problem.
Thankfully, new gun control laws have no chance of passing the House. Thanks to other issues, such as the “fiscal cliff,” we will be debating the gun control bill proposals after all of the shock and emotion has calmed down. The folks over at the Brady Campaign depend on tragedies and times of high emotion because they do not have the membership and support that the NRA has. In December alone, the NRA gained more membership in one month than the entire membership of the Brady Bunch. Put simply, the Brady Bunch makes up about 1% of the NRA’s membership and money. There is also other gun rights organizations such as the Gun Owners of America, Second Amendment Foundation, and so on. Each one of those organizations are larger than the Brady Bunch.
Who among you know someone who is a member of a gun control organization? More than likely you know someone who is an NRA member. Despite what you have heard in the biased liberal media, gun control is not popular. The NRA’s membership has sky rocketed after the Newtown shooting. Guns are flying off the shelves at gun stores and gun shows. People are flooding Congress with letters in opposition against gun bans. Support for gun ownership has never been higher than today.
Times of high emotion is what I fear as a gun rights advocate. The worst laws in history were passed during times of high emotion. Thankfully, cooler heads will prevail in Congress.
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