The gun control issue is a hot button one, but I’m not touching that right now. Honestly, I’m not sure what would be feasible at this point, because taking people’s guns away will make people (with guns) angry, collecting illegal guns (from people who have these guns) would require massive amounts of manpower and I’m not sure law enforcement at this moment (ever?) can be trusted to be responsible for this task, not to mention the current volatile relationship a good heap of this nation has with the police. Finally, not allowing people to buy guns at all would probably cause riots, hell, all of those scenarios are likely to cause riots. I just don’t know. I don’t have an answer for gun control, but I hope there are great minds working to figure that out.

At this point I think it’s safe to assume we are all tired of the lack of actionable progress made to solve this crisis of mass murder. People are being shot in droves, it seems, every few days. I took a closer look, and it’s even more than that. Apparently, there have been more mass shootings this year than there are days. Let’s think about that, mull it over in your noggins for a minute. There have been more mass shootings than THE NUMBER OF DAYS THIS YEAR. I think it’s safe to call this epidemic a crisis of astronomical proportions, don’t you? Some of these mass shootings, in my opinion, share a glaring detail, mental illness. This is not to oversimplify the issue of gun violence, because it is an extraordinarily complex subject, but to dive into one of the many contributing elements. 

These people suffering from psychological problems are able to easily attain firearms, and not just any firearms, assault rifles, AKA 47s (same thing? I’m obviously a huge gun nut), automatic weapons, etc - heavy duty stuff nobody but the military should ever possess. Hell, handguns are scary enough. There just seem to be too many loopholes and gray areas for getting/registering a gun. Did you know if you owned a machine gun before 1986, it’s totes cool to keep it? Also, it’s not illegal to own one. THIS IS NOT A TEST. IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO OWN A MACHINE GUN. There are also no Federal laws even requiring gun registration. Is someone selling guns in gum ball machines somewhere? Vending machines? They might as well be.

In most of the mass shootings that have been covered by major news networks, it’s abundantly clear the shooters are suffering from some major inner turmoil that has been festering for months if not years and all of this turmoil is funneled into destroying others. It’s downright scary that some of these shooters meticulously plan their attacks for weeks/month and some of them just “snap” and begin slaughtering helpless people, but in both scenarios the humanity inside of these shooters was diminished beneath a cloud of warped ideals, fanaticism, pain, hate, anger. It’s possible they could have gotten help if we as a nation were more forthright about mental health. Speaking with a professional may have quelled their murderous predilections. There aren’t very many facilities that treat mental health nowadays and more often than not people are completely unaware they even have problems. A stigma surrounds therapy in some households and that’s just unhelpful. There is absolutely nothing to excuse those unconscionable crimes, but maybe having a more open conversation about mental health will prevent more of these events from happening in the future. 

All of these shootings are, without a doubt, acts of domestic terrorism. According to the the FBI’s definition, these mass shootings fall under the definition of Domestic Terrorism. Look it up. These murders did “intimidate or coerce a civilian population.” It is unsurprising how hesitant the government is to call these acts domestic terrorism, because so many have occurred, it’s an intrinsic reflection of poor leadership and blatant apathy toward reform. Ugh, the GOP.

Anyway, my point is, it’s taboo to talk about mental health in this country and it’s too easy to illegally, heck, legally get these incredibly dangerous metal catastrophes. We’re not suppose to live like this. Those people who commit these unforgivable acts are products of our society whether we like it or not. It’s time to examine what’s going on and maybe prioritize our lives differently. It’s not enough (possible?) to limit the amount of guns in circulation or solely look at gun control from a legalese perspective, but to resolve the root of this horrifying recurrence, whatever that may be. Nobody should lose a child, a mother, a father, a best friend, a lover, a brother, a sister, an acquaintance- anyone to this violence. When will it end? How many more people need to nonsensically die?