Gun Control is a distraction – Not the Solution

One has to ask how a 20 year old, by all accounts, quiet honor student, could transform into a psychotic kid killer. The transformation didn’t happen overnight and signs of prolonged depression or depravity must have been evident over the course of months if not years. It is my opinion that this is a mental health issue and not a gun control one. There is a stigma to mental health that nobody wants to fall into. It’s a sad state of affairs that parents who may notice changes in their children’s behavior usually brush it off as stress or some other excuse. When things get worse they call it a problem but hardly ever seek help. This kind of depraved behavior didn’t gestate over night, this attack was meticulously planned to the last detail, the weapons were gathered and the plan implemented, it’s sad. So I think, instead of falling into the knee jerk reaction of gun control, we should take a step back and look at the mental health picture of the youth of America. We should examine the similarities amongst the last batch of school shooters (the major one being they all came from broken homes) and realize that once these people chose to kill, a lack of weapons would not stop them. Don’t let politicians and lobby groups sideline the true facts fo the case, there was a serious mental health issue here that wasn’t dealt with. Remember, the Columbine shooters planted bombs to blow before they even entered the building. Their diaries said that the bombs were supposed to kill more people then the guns. When someone is bent on killing a lack of weapons is not going to stop them, they’ll just be more creative. Parents wake up! Look at your kids, evaluate them, get them the help they need. Once parents start taking responsibility, then, and only then, will this kind of senseless violence stop.