Edgar, there are enough gun laws on the books so please stop with that old knee jerk phrase.

How many more insane people will go crazy before we decide to take mental health issues seriously? The truth is, gun control can’t stop these people. Once a person looses their mind, and decides to kill, it’s too late. Whether they use a gun, or just drive their car through a crowd – nothing short of deadly force will stop them once they have made up their mind to die, and take as many people as possible with them.

That’s why our country needs to de-stigmatize mental health care. People need to feel comfortable going to a doctor to talk about their frustrations and fears. Families need to feel comfortable gently persuading a loved one to seek help.

Mr. Farmer, you want a cause? Fight for better mental health care in our Community and Country. More gun regulation is not the answer to this problem.

Due to combined cuts in mental health funding at the federal and state levels over the years literally hundreds of mentally ill people are turned away from getting any help, hospitals are closed and these unfortunates are left to fend for themselves with little help are guidance. We are now paying the piper for these “savings.”

There will be a day when a deranged phsycopath opens fire at a major sports/entertainment venue killing hundreds. All the gun freaks will claim, “If only 30,000 more fans had been armed this wouldn’t have happened”.

Anoman & Slamfist - I guess in a sense this is a “mental health issue” because sane people don’t go out and massacre others, however, nowhere have I read that he suffered from a mental condition (ie schizophrenia, bipolar, etc) and wasn’t able to get help. He was angry and frustrated, thought he was right, and apparently his family fed into that. Doesn’t sound like he WANTED help or that it was really even suggested to him (and you can’t just make people get help). I know you are looking for an easy answer, but sometimes there just isn’t one…

What do you propose Mr. Garrison? Are you hoping for the day when a massacre of larger proportions happens so you can prove your point? Are you saying that the guns are the reason that 5 good people were executed?

#4 – Garrison,

I agree with you more often than disagree, but if “hundreds are killed at a sporting event”, the psycho won’t be using a gun. Most likely it will be improvised explosives. Will you be then calling for the banning of gasoline, diesel, fertilizer, dish washing liquid, etc? Will you be calling to ban pool chemicals when someone generates poison gas and kills hundreds?

Renee (#5) accuses me of “looking for an easy answer” - I disagree. What I’m saying is: There is no easy answer when the question is, “How do you stop a mad man who is willing die in order to kill other people?” The people who are saying “Ban guns” are the ones looking for “easy answers”. As the pro-gun people are fond of pointing out – all of these mass killings share a common trait – they happen in areas where guns aren’t supposed to be (when was the last time you heard of a mass shooting on a firing range?).

Do you really think a ban, even a totalitarian “collect ‘em all and shred ‘em ban”, will stop someone who is determined to kill? If you do, than maybe you need to read up on the Oklahoma City bombing, or 911. The problem isn’t guns – it’s psychos. The “answer” however, is not so easy.

Bravo Anonaman, I could not have put it better.

Renee,
Are schizophrenia and bipolar the only mental health issues that deserve treatment? That’s the same as saying heart attacks and liver disease are the only things worthy of medical treatment.

While mental health is covered by most insurance, it is usually severerly limited. Add to that the stigma that is attached with “seeking help”. I can’t guarantee that it would have prevented this tragedy, but if mental health care was put on the same level as physical health care, the world would be a better place.

Renee- I was addressing Anonaman’s statement that better mental health care is needed. I am not looking for an answer to anything easy or otherwise. I have no idea what “the shooter’s” mental condition was and as it is past history now it really doesn’t matter. Mental health care is practically non-existant and seems to , in my opinion, consist of multiple medications and send you on your way or incarceration where no help is available at all. Budget cuts have made mental hospitals nearly extinct. You don’t have to look far anymore to see the results of this wandering the streets aimlessly and hopelessly.