This morning as I drove to court, I passed a number of school buses, and had a visceral reaction of fear and anxiety. I could not help but think “will these children be safe today? Will someone storm their school and gun them down? Is there anyone or anything that can really keep children safe at school?” I am a Michigan resident, the mother of an adult child, and if I am feeling this level of anxiety, the fear and angst in the hearts of Newtown, Connecticut parents and children must be unfathomable to us who were not directly affected by the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
In the aftermath of this cataclysmic event, the predictable political maneuvering has begun. Already President Obama has sent gun control legislation to Capitol Hill. Here in Michigan, whatever Governor Snyder’s original intentions about the proposed legislation to permit concealed weapons in schools and churches, he really had no choice (short of political suicide) but to veto the bill. You could almost hear an audible sigh of relief throughout the school halls and religious sanctuaries of Michigan. Even the mighty NRA vows to “contribute” to the effort to ensure that there is never again a massive shooting like Sandy Hook. The politicians are lining up to pay lip service to the view that we need greater gun control in America. No surprise here.
I will certainly lend my voice to the belief that a ban on assault rifles is appropriate and long overdue. But, fellow citizens, we need to face facts. We can ban all the weapons we want, and it will not stop the determined from obtaining firearms. If assault weapons are outlawed, they will be produced and sold on the black market, the same as alcoholic beverages were during Prohibition, and the same as cocaine, heroin and other “illicit” substances are today. The politicians will make themselves (and us) feel better with their legislative initiatives. But, gun control will not stop murder, and it will not stop massacre.
So, I would like to lend my voice loudly to another conversation spurred on by Sandy Hook. It is a much quieter conversation and has glaringly not led to the introduction of heroic legislation by the President or anyone else for that matter. That is the conversation about mental health research, treatment and cure.
Over the decades, we have seen a dramatic decrease in funding for not only the treatment of the mentally ill, but also the research into the causes and possible cures for mental illness. Perhaps if there were adequate funding for mental health treatment, there would not have been the massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook. If, perhaps, Adam Lanza had received the mental health treatment he needed he would not have gone on a killing rampage.
Make no mistake about it. To be mentally ill does not make one stupid. Lanza’s wanton bloodletting was pre-meditated. This is evidenced both by the nature and number of guns he brought with him to Sandy Hook, but also by the fact that he did everything he could to destroy his computer hard drive before the killing spree began. He knew exactly what he was doing, yet there is clearly ample evidence from which to conclude that he was suffering from serious behavioral issues and a thought disorder that contributed to him carrying out his savage plan to murder small children. My point is, were assault weapons illegal, Lanza clearly possessed the intellectual resources to find and purchase them on the black market. We may be able to control guns, but no one was able to control Adam Lanza.
At the end of the day this is not a gun issue. The old saying “Guns don’t kill people, people do” may sound like a cliché, but it has never been truer. Whether legally or otherwise, a mentally ill person will always be able to obtain guns. If only our politicians would propose legislation to pour much-needed funding into mental health treatment, then we might have some hopes of creating an emotionally and mentally healthy society, where the sight of a school bus passing by does not strike fear in our hearts.
Our mentally ill have always and continue to, fall through society’s cracks. Adam Lanza fell through the cracks and an unspeakable price is being paid by 26 individuals who lost their lives, their families, the community in which they live, children everywhere boarding school buses with apprehension, and the psyche of an entire nation. That is a price too dear to pay. How much saner it would be if we would face the challenges of mental illness head on and begin to commit the resources to eradicate this terrible disease, in all its manifestations, from our society.
We would all feel much safer then.