Today I would like to speak on the buzz words: mass violence, gun control, mental health from a Catholic prospective.
Mass Violence - 17, maybe more, died in a school shooting. That's 17 too many. One person is dying in a school shooting is too much. What makes 17 worse than 1? The fact that they were random? The fact that they were innocent? The fact they were unarmed? The fact that 17 is more than 1? Yes, all of the above. It's sick. I'm not sure what the shooters motive was, but the commom denominator in Mass Violence is the shooters don't discriminate. I am thinking of two other times when a person didn't discriminate. When the United States dropped not one but two bombs on Japan and wiped Nagasaki and Hiroshima of the face of the earth. Where is the outrage? There were hundreds of thousands obliterated who were random, innocent, and unarmed. Dead. Shame on the U.S. I'm also reminded of Abortion. "No one wants to get an abortion" I've been told. I'm sorry, people should take responsibility for their actions. A life ends because of an abortion. The men and children who died in Parkland were wanted. The children who are aborted are not wanted. We need to change the excepted idea that there are some people that are not wanted. Shame on the U.S. for perpetuating that message.
Gun Control - what's the answer? More background checks? The piece of shit (yes, I know I just got done saying that all people should be wanted, but he just forfeited his right to life by become cancer to society and should be removed) was mentally unwell. How could you have kept guns out of his hands? Baker Act him a month ago and declare him mentally unfit so that shows up on his background check? Should someone have sent him to counciling when his mom died or when the girl he was stalking didn't stalk him back? What's the answer? There are sooooooo many crazies out there. Who gets to decide when someone looses the privledge to having a gun. Yeah, I called it a privledge, not a right. I'm reminded of George Carlin's words. Think of the Japanese in California in WWII. Their "God given right" to bare arms was taken away in the snap of a finger.
Do we ban only Assult Rifles? I know you can hunt with one, but other than killing a lot of people at once, i cant think of many things you for which you can use them. Defending your family? It's a stretch, I think the U.S. interior/domestic aggressive task force would have the upper hand in a shoot out with you and some buddies vs. them. But you'd go out saying "I told you so." So, I have a gun. A trusty revolver. Theoretically, I could kill 6 people with it. If I stole my roommates gun, I could kill 12 people if I was a good shot. That's a Mass Violent shooting. I don't think you could ban just ARs and stop all Mass Violent shootings. You'd have to ban all guns.
Ok, so if we ban all guns, first off we turn them over to a government that doesn't value life at all. And we have to trust that the criminals handed over their guns too. It would be a crime to own a gun. Criminals are good at commiting crimes, so they'd probably be in the possession of a gun. I'm thinking of Chicago, which has extremely strict gun laws, and the highest rate of gun violence I can think of. Unless every weapon from every .22 to every nuke just somehow disintegrated at the same time, the bad can very scarily outweigh the good. I could see the people blaming this shooting on guns not accepting the blame when a law abiding citizen can't save his or herself and gets raped, killed, robbed when they have no way to protect themselves.
I'm reminded of the anecdote where I can set my revolver (or even an AR-15) on my porch and not one person passing by will be shot. That's because guns don't kill, people kill.
So that leads us to Mental Health.
I've already proposed the question. Who is responsible for ensuring everyone takes a mental health exam and getting the help they need. Food is more important than a mental health exam, and guess what? Not everybody has been fed yet. How are we going to help everybody that needs help? Could it be to treat others as you would have done unto you? That's a start. But people didn't follow the golden rule and just stop in the late 1990s when Columbine happened. But discipline was out and Godlessness was in.
So what's the answer? I would like to propose that everybody starts by valuing the life of not just themselves, but their neighbor. All people. The young, the old, the blacks, your non Catholic neighbor. But I can't put a gun against your forehead and make you. It's got to come through prayer from within. Where can you find discipline? How about the desire to love all and value all people? Mass.
Requiescant in Pace
