By Ian Linker | The Save Jersey Blog
Let me just say that every time an innocent life is taken in an act of gun violence, it is an unspeakable tragedy. For the victims, their families, their friends, nothing could be worse. The animals who commit these heinous acts have no idea, and don’t even care for that matter, how much pain they cause. It is time we as a society step up and do something about it. But we must focus on the root cause and not overreact reflexively by infringing upon our law-abiding citizens’ civil rights.
Guns are not to blame – period. So, what is? Almost 60 million Americans suffer from mental illness and many of them do not get the treatment they need. We just don’t devote adequate resources to identify and treat these people. As such, we have a mental-health crisis in this country. But fear not. There are many things we can and should do.
For starters, Congress must pass comprehensive mental-health reform. There are multiple bipartisan bills working their way through Congress, currently – two in the Senate and one in the House. The bills address a host of issues: suicide prevention, mental-health treatment reform, training for law enforcement and first responders, expanding the mental-health workforce, children’s trauma recovery, mental-health awareness for teachers, integrating primary-health and mental-health care systems, new grants for early intervention, improving mental-health services within Medicare and Medicaid, and addressing parity between mental-health and medical insurance benefits. I am optimistic we will get much-needed reform.
But mental-health reform is only one step, albeit an important one. Our right to bear arms is something worth fighting for. But like it or not, a gun becomes an inherently dangerous instrument if a violent criminal or someone with severe mental illness gets possession of one. So shouldn’t we do all we can to prevent these individuals from acquiring one? And can’t we do that without further infringing our Second Amendment right? I say, yes and, yes.
For starters, the existing background check system is not working. We must make it work better. The holes in the system have been on full display recently – the Charleston church shooter was able to purchase a handgun and use it to kill nine innocent parishioners when the system should have stopped him. We must close these holes. We must ensure FBI examiners have the most accurate and up-to-date information on would-be gun buyers. No new law is needed here. We just need to make sure the National Instant Criminal Background Check System works as it was intended.
While mental-health reform will go a long way towards keeping guns from the mentally ill over time, there is more we can do now. None of the bills wending their way through Congress includes a provision to prevent the mentally ill from acquiring a firearm through the background check system. And they should. Such a provision could have stopped many of the high-profile shootings, including possibly last week’s horrific shooting in Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia of a television reporter and her cameraman. The shooter there cleared the criminal background check.
This is not more gun control that will infringe upon our right to bear arms. We are talking about using our common-sense to ensure the mentally ill don’t get guns. I think all of us, on the Right and the Left, can agree that the mentally ill should not be able to buy a gun. It is time to come together on this issue and take positive steps to reduce the torrent of gun violence.
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I question the constitutional validity of background and mental-health checks. The progressives drill into our heads that it’s a “sensible” measure, but it really isn’t. It is not the government’s business to determine who is entitled to the inalienable right to self defense and who isn’t.
God, Family, and education in that order and I don’t mean government education
Linker writes: “I think all of us, on the Right and the Left, can agree that the mentally ill should not be able to buy a gun.”
So far so good. Now precisely HOW are we to define “mentally ill?” Given the proclivities of the Marxist-in-Chief and his enablers in Congress, we might expect legislation defining “Mental Illness” as “the condition of an individual who believes in smaller government, lower taxes, free markets, and the governing authority of the U.S. Constitution.”
Mr. Linker you are wrong we don’t agree on anything. Background check systems have never been shown to work. The few demonstrably dangerous mentally ill should be institutionalized as was done in the past. If they want to kill and guns aren’t available they will use something else which is more dangerous like a car or truck so the only solution is to keep them locked up. Mass shootings are actually very rare anyway. If we want to make a real reduction in murders and violence we need to do something about inner city gangs and drug dealers. Just as ending alcohol prohibition reduced violence in the past ending drug prohibition will take the money and motivation away from most of the inner city violence.
Should veterans with issues be barred from owning guns? Should young mothers who experience depression after childbirth be barred from owning a gun? Oftentimes, even going to see a marriage counselor or therapist voluntarily can put you on a list of prohibited persons under these proposals.
Why should my rights require an FBI clearance to exercise? Background checks are ineffective and de facto registration. Too much room for nefarious government abuses.
We are still missing the big picture. Individuals who perpetrate these types of attacks are not good people. What they do is evil. We must not be afraid, as conservatives, to call it what it is. So to say “mental health was the issue” serves partially to excuse the issue, because it was no longer “wrong” it was a disorder of the brain. No mental health screenings, no background check is going to stop evil in this world.