Dear Editor,
GETTING IT WRONG AGAIN
The tragedy in the recent Uvalde school massacre and similar horrors of shooting innocents is almost beyond understanding. Tragically, the knee-jerk response of church leaders and politicians at all levels seems to be the same: blame the gun instead of the shooter. In the cold light of day and in the clear reason of intelligent thinking, the problem is not guns; it’s the mental state of the shooter. Surely all of the horror has so far involved guns in the hands of unstable shooters who were either mentally impaired, drug-induced, or both. However, the most significant common denominator of the killers is that everyone was mentally unstable for one reason or another.
Blaming guns for these tragedies is like blaming traffic deaths on automobiles. It’s not the car; it’s the driver! Yesterday Mr. Biden called once again for more stringent gun control legislation. It brings to mind the 1942 movie Casablanca when, being informed of a killing, police Captain Renault directed a subordinate to “Round up the usual suspects!” Going for greater restrictions on guns cannot protect American citizens from deranged individuals who intend violence or murder. To do so would be to lean our ladder against the wrong solution tree. Address mental illness — the effective solution.
The 1970’s saw a social movement that emptied mental hospitals and locked wards of patients because early liberals prevailed that incarceration violated their civil rights. The result: 35% of penal institution inmates today are mental cases, and homelessness is epidemic in the country, e.g., half of the nation’s homeless are in California where there are miles of homeless tents and shelters under bridges and on sidewalks. Many are delusional and dangerous.
A more realistic but politically improbable solution to the continuing shooting rampage we suffer is to seriously legislate the long-term institution of individuals medically deemed dangerous. Prisons and jails are for criminals; mental hospitals with locked wards are for the unbalanced who shoot up schools and shopping centers. Both exist in order to keep safe those citizens on the outside. This move by authorities is long overdue.
God bless America!
El Sellers
Fairfield, Texas
