Taking away my right to bear arms is like taking away my freedom. I don’t like it when the Constitutional rights for all are subject to constraints because of the adverse actions of a few. I don’t even own a gun, but when my rights are subject to be abolished, it makes me very uncomfortable. There are already bans on automatic assault weapons which I can live with, but now the government wants to band semi-automatic weapons as well. What will they ban next? If monomaniacal killers can’t use high-powered guns to kill large groups of people, then maybe they will use bombs! So, what are we going to do then… ban bombs? Oh, there is already a ban on bombs… at least I would think there is... If not bombs, then what will mass murderers use to kill us? Maybe we should get the bad guys before they get us!

I think that the mentality of an unstable individual drives them to kill at any cost and by any means necessary. Whether the weapon of choice is a high-powered semi-automatic gun, a bomb, a biological weapon, or spreading AIDS, these individuals are set on a path of destruction and will annihilate the demons in their mind regardless. Possibly, the sick killers envision their victims as figmentations of the preconceived monsters of their psychosis, which are not real, but delusions. In this case, it appears that a low powered weapon will not suffice to silence the pain.

What I have noticed in most incidents of mass shooting outbreaks in America is that the assailant was mentally ill or was hurt by someone else and wanted revenge. This information was a known fact. Maybe these assassinators had previously exhibited behaviors of insanity and were under the care of a physician or had a parent, a friend, or a caregiver that thought that the killer should have been under a physician’s care, but was not. Maybe no one knew that the signals the perpetrator exhibited were of distress and signaled symptoms of an underlining mental disorder that required medical attention. Consequently, the system has failed the shooter and the innocent people who have lost their lives as a result of this. Moreover, the American people may lose yet another freedom because someone failed to properly diagnosis and treat the mentally ill. Why should Americans have to pay for this by losing their right to completely bear arms in the way the original 2nd Amendment intended for us to? Why not treat the patient instead?

Instead of putting limitations on the 2nd Amendment, the government should push an awareness campaign about mental illnesses, what it is, how to determine if someone is suffering from a mental illness, and when to get help. There should be more training for physicians on how to better manage the treatment of mentally ill patients. Doctors should conduct mental evaluations if deemed necessary, following a course of treatments at different intervals during the year to assure that treatment is working and that the patient is of a sound mind. If the treatment is not working, then the patient should be committed to a psychiatric hospital until further improvements can be measured -instead of letting them walk freely! For the caregivers, there should be strict guidelines for storing weapons, guns, bullets, or any other weapons of mass destruction in a locked and concealed safe. If an incident should occur, then the ownness should be on the physician or parent or caregiver and not the American people.

My heart goes out to the families, friends, and parents of the loved ones who have lost their lives in shooting incidents across American. Unfortunately, I don’t think that enforcing more regulations on the right to bears arms will resolve this issue. You have to treat the root cause of the issue, which includes raising awareness of mental illnesses, preventive management for the mentally ill, and the enforcement of the practice by posing fines on medical institutions that are non-compliant and jail time for caregivers responsible for the weapons the killer used. Another idea, why not consider limiting or monitoring the amount of bullets that can be purchased by individuals in a particular time frame just like it is done for over-the-counter cold medicines? At least this way the proper officials will be flagged when people purchase large amounts of bullets for no particular reason. This is another way to get a handle on the situation versus taking away a cherished American freedom… the right to bear arms.

Photo taken 1/13/13 of the Georgia state capitol with the “Miss Freedom” statue being obscured by the trees. In this photo, you can barely see what she represents… are we losing our freedoms?

Camera: Fujifilm Finepix S, 24X, 14 mega pixels

See a picture of the "Miss Freedom" statue here:
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/statues/missfreedom.htm