Can’t keep my mouth shut about this
I sat down at my computer and started writing a blog post a couple of times this weekend but it was hard for me to find words because all I’ve been thinking about and reading about lately is the tragedy that happened on Friday in Newtown. Like Nilsa, I am so incredibly angry that this happened. Rather than try to articulate my anger over how this can be continuing to happen – closer and closer together and more casualties each time it seems – I will link to a few articles that I think bring up important points.
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Death and delusion in a nation of assault rifles
This is an editorial written by a Canadian for the CBC and this quote alone pretty much sums it up for me: “If I understand properly, you live in an urban area, and carry around a .40-calibre pistol with up to 17 bullets in the magazine, capable of firing up to five a second, just like one of the pistols the Connecticut shooter toted. In other words, you pack the means to kill more than a dozen people in moments if you choose, and we just have to trust you to be sensible and hold your temper.”
A mother shares her thoughts on being the parent of a mentally ill child: “I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza’s mother. I am Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’s mother. I am James Holmes’s mother. I am Jared Loughner’s mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho’s mother. And these boys—and their mothers—need help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.”
The inconvenient truth about mental health and gun control
Probably my favourite post on the topic so far. Kristen makes some very realistic and logical suggestions for how gun control can be addressed keeping mental health issues in mind: “This isn’t a partisan or a political issue, though some will pretend it is. This isn’t a 2nd amendment issue, though some will cry that it is. I think the ideas I’ve outlined above are things that can keep both gun enthusiasts and gun control ideologists happy. But we’ve got to do something. The events of last week illustrate that we can’t keep making excuses.”
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I don’t get political on my blog very often, and I kept my mouth shut through most of the American election though I definitely had some pretty strong opinions, but I feel so angered and saddened by this recent tragedy that I can’t not bring it up on the blog. I don’t know that it can get much worse than this, but I also don’t want to find out. I truly hope that these issues are addressed immediately.
I will be back with last weeks training recap tomorrow and normal posting will resume after that!
Great post, Amber. I, too, am so saddened by this, but wasn’t really sure how to put my feelings into words. So I just didn’t… I will have to check out these articles. I don’t really understand why my country allows its citzens to purchase assault weapons. I also find it ironic that the mother of Adam Lanza purchased those guns to keep her home safe (according to a news report I listened to) but those guns brought her to her death… The mental health aspect is definitely a big challenge as I am not sure how we attack that, but I think it starts with people being more open about their struggles with mental health issues. I hope that some day people can talk about it the way we talk about other maladies like hypertension, but we are a long ways from that…
I think you raise the exact point that gun proponents don’t want to admit: gun ownership doesn’t always lead to being able to defend yourself. In fact, how many times do we also hear about kids accessing their parents loaded guns (that were supposed under lock and key) and accidentally shooting each other??? Too often.
Amber, don’t keep your mouth shut. I fear that our country stagnates on so many issues because people are afraid to speak up or afraid to have opinions that differ from their peers or whatever and we can’t be quiet any more. This is life and death, lots of lives and lots of deaths – we need action! Thanks for posting some excellent articles.
Nice post. Thank you for not keeping your mouth shut, the more people who speak (though as Canadians it might not make a difference) the more likely something will change.
I agree with Lisa in that hopefully with mental health one day it will be a more open subject. It’s starting to, with many people being more open about their struggles with depression, but many of the other conditions are not as talked about and almost all still carry a lot of stigma.
As for gun regulations…who knows what the best way is to handle it. I do think there needs to be something in place, what form that should take, I have no idea.
Well, I for one believe that if the government has access to guns, that its people also should be able to own them But…to what extent?! A rifle, a 6-shooter, I can’t really see the issue with these as they are somewhat more manually operated. But automatic weapons, yeesh. With mental health though…urg. That’s a toughie. What is the answer?
We all know people who should probably never own a gun. (Just like we also probably know people who we think shouldn’t have children!) Life just isnt’ fair. It isn’t! And we are each guilty of sins in our lives and need forgiveness from God just as much as the next person. If we don’t truly believe this (and I find it hard to swallow too, esp. with these tragedies!!!), then any time we help another person, we are acting as if we’re above them instead of alongside of them. We all need the same forgiveness.
I completely agree with you on the forgiveness part (as tough as it is too swallow) as well as people having access to guns as long as the government does. HOWEVER, I also don’t believe there is ANY reason a civilian (or really ANYONE for that matter – including governments and soldiers but like that will ever happen…) should have access to assault rifles that shoot off hundreds of rounds a second. These are weapons of mass destruction and they are designed to kill, which is exactly what they’re doing. I think the USA government needs to focus on making those kinds of guns a heck of a lot harder to get legally – or else restrict the number of bullets a magazine can have – and then start addressing other issues. There are SO MANY THINGS that need to be done to address this huge issue but it needs to start NOW with SOMETHING!
(if all the caps in this reply aren’t indicative of how angry this whole thing has made me I don’t know what is! lol)
Yeah, I TOTALLY agree about those kinds of weapons!!!! That is SCARY how many rounds some of those weapons can fire. I don’t know exactly what’s legal in the States right now, but it sounds like they need to ramp it down to things a person could use for hunting and/or marksman sports.
I cannot get over this tragedy. So sad
That second article completely rubs me the wrong way and has since it came out. I can’t place my finger on it, but it just does.
Mel, I had similar feelings and then I saw this which, though I think it’s a little too harsh, articulated my concerns pretty well http://thegirlwhowasthursday.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/you-are-not-adam-lanzas-mother/.
Though I 100% agree that we need greater awareness of and funding for mental health, I fell that all the well-intentioned focus may do more harm than good by painting all people who suffer from mental illness with the same broad brush. Most people who suffer from mental illness are NOT violent and never become so.
What has happened makes me sick. It makes me scared to have children one day becaue you can only protect them so much. It is a sick society we all live in, life is precious, how could someone (mental illness or not) do something like this.
I’ve been seeing the “I am Adam Lanza’s Mother” article around a lot. It is kind of difficult to read (although no more than anything about this), but it definitely leaves and impression and makes its point.
While I thought that the “I am Adam Lanza’s Mother” article was powerful read, I wish that Liza Long (the author) had published it anonymously in order to protect the identity of her son. Although Adam Lanza probably did have some sort of mental illness (you’d have to to go through with this type of tragedy, IMO), nothing has been confirmed so far. I really dislike how Long has equated mental illness with violence. Just because her son may be mentally ill and is prone to violent outbursts, does not mean that he will grow up to be a mass murderer; in fact those with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than being the perpetrators. Long’s son now has to live with the stigma that his mother’s blog has brought, and I only wonder how it might affect him in the long run.
I agree with Long that the US (and other countries with similar views) needs to take a good long look about how people with mental illness are treated and fixing a broken system, but I just wish Long had taken a different approach to spreading this awareness.
Amen!
Amber thanks for posting. Knowledge is power and all of these articles have important messages to share.
This is one of those things where I don’t even know what to say. I never watch the news, but when it happened, I was glued to CNN all day long. It’s just devastating, and terrifying, and I still can’t wrap my mind around it.
I’m getting to this post a bit late but I wanted to wait and actually read all the articles- I had only read the second one before today. I find the whole issue so hard… and the reason why I don’t often get political on my blog is not for fear of offending someone but just because I can often see multiple sides to an issue. I often find that the more I read about something the more conflicting studies there are and its just so clear to me that anyone can make a study to prove most any point they want to haha. Would I support that people have to take a mental health test in order to get a gun? Absolutely! Do I think it would eliminate these kind of issues? Unfortunately no. But then again, if it was my kid, my school etc where this happened, would I be happy to eliminate just ONE of these times from happening? Absolutely! Another thing I haven’t heard mentioned too often is the idea of looking at who else lives in the house with someone who owns a gun. I know at least in some states (and I assume all), a person can get a license and buy a gun and go through all the red tape, but no one else in their family has to- and in all reality those people probably have the same access to that gun. I have found this strange for a long time. I’d be curious to hear what the laws and rules are in Canada. I definitely think this is an important issue.
Mental health is definitely an important issue too, and one that needs to be addressed. We have a lot of work to do.