In the aftermath of the recent mass shootings across the
United States, a wave of unrest has swept through US citizens. More than ever
before, people are worried about the possible implementation of new laws
regulating firearm purchase and ownership. ‘The new gun laws will keep everyone
helpless, we won’t be able to protect ourselves’ says one side, while the other
battles incessantly for keeping guns out of the wrong hands. Both sides appear
to be jumping to worst-case-scenario conclusions- and who wouldn’t, after all
of this violence? It’s understandable that we’re all worried for our safety.
However, arguing with the threat of Armageddon is not going to help.
Adam Lanza, the infamous villain of the Sandy Hook
Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, managed not only to take 27
lives plus his own, but also to send an entire country into chaos. Within hours
of the news of his attack, social networking sites were flooded with people
arguing, fighting about why he did it, and what his access to a gun meant. If
everyone who owns a gun could be a mass murderer, what do we do about it?
Many of us here at the [Newspaper] and at [Insert University Here] are Southern natives. We hail from outdoorsy, recreation-based
states where guns and hunting are a point of pride. We’ll admit it- southerners
like their guns! It does not, however, mean that every one of us with a hunting
rifle is going to use it to take innocent lives. The problem is not the guns,
it’s the people. Gun regulations are designed to keep our weapons in check, and
there are many places where they do just that. Adding more regulations may be a
good solution or a bad one, but there is no possible way that any one law or decision
will remove all violence from a society. Haven’t we all heard that there is no
such thing as perfection?
We call your attention to the people. Adam Lanza is
suspected of suffering from some form of autism, which may or may not have
anything to do with his motivation to murder. James Holmes, the villain of the
Aurora movie theater shooting in July, was mentally unstable and possibly
abusing prescription medication. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, of the 1999
Columbine High School shooting, were well-known for their love of violence in
writing and video games. They were bullying victims who had already turned to
theft and anger, and both had undergone counseling. Seung-Hui Cho, known for
the Virgina Tech shooting in 2007, was diagnosed as mentally unstable and in
treatment at the time of his attack. While we are hesitant to point fingers at
the system, it is plausible to believe that these vicious attacks could have
been prevented not by restricting the guns, but by restricting the people.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, approximately 57 million people in America suffer from mental
illness. Additionally, 45 percent of those suffer from multiple disorders. That’s
20% of our total population. 57 million people who count on the United States
government and its health facilities to help them. It is truly heartbreaking to
see Americans only hours after the loss of 28 lives posting ridiculous Facebook
statuses and Twitter posts about how the president better not take their guns
away. We are disgusted by the response of our citizens. Twenty elementary
school children dead due to one man’s instability, and all we can do is point
fingers at the other side and squabble. Hear this, America- we still see you,
we still hear you. Stop embarrassing us all, and look at the real problem. Adam
Lanza’s firearm didn’t walk into a school and open fire, Adam Lanza did. If
only our system had helped him before it was too late.
*Note, statistics based on collaborative data from the 2004 census to the present. All study results and numbers are vouched for by the author.
yay i love your things
ReplyDelete