Political rants

We have a mental health crisis in our country. Imagine how our history would look if they had jumped on that issue after, I dunno the first 5 years of mass shootings? But I don't want a ban on guns. Criminals don't care about laws or bans. Violent criminals belong in prison and separated from society. Only when they prove without a doubt they are rehabilitible should they be released on parole. Nonviolent offenders, well, depends on the offense. Most drug incidents could be considered non-violent but what if it endangers, harms, or kills a child? I think tackling the mental state though would fix a lot of issues.

@verucassault Those are pretty much my thoughts as well. Mental health has been highly overlooked in a lot of these cases. I find that the mention of mental health seems to lean towards calling the shooters psychopaths, sociopaths, and other typical stereotypical labels for people suffering mental illnesses. It's glossed over a lot for topics on guns, video games, and other hot button topics. Honestly I think there should be more investigations into the backgrounds of the shooters and their upbringings for possible correlations. I remember looking into Elliot Rodger and noticed some things in his past that could possibly point towards how he began to view the world. I also remember researching Dylan and Eric's (the columbine shooters) backgrounds as much as I could. This involved reading their journals and reading other books that delved into their minds a bit deeper. I honestly think that the warning signs had been in the open for these three and it's just something that parents or even everyday people aren't comfortable discussing, so a lot of the time someone's mental health deteriorates without any attention given to it. Mental health is fairly new, at least the way we've begun to look at it. People just didn't/don't know how to handle or converse with people like Elliot Rodger, Eric Harris, or many of these other violent criminals. It's also sad that our healthcare system puts a small amount of money into mental health in comparison to how important it is to us. I completely agree that we should jump on the issue more heavily because it's becoming an even bigger problem with the way the world is evolving in the age of social media.

Again, when talking about mental health people put the cart before the horse. People ban the death penalty because they assume we've a functional mental health program. However as it stands we don't. With a growing population of mentally unstable people, we're outnumbered on trustworthy doctors to administer treatments. So until we have those things then the death penalty for proven guilt should remain. As a side note, I do not understand why a person is "not to be blamed" for murder? Why exactly should such a person "not be blamed?" They were abused. Both my parents were abused growing up, they didn't murder anyone yet. They suffered addiction. I've an uncle that was a recovering alcoholic with rage issues. He didn't murder anyone. They just weren't right in the head. Got that right and it cost not one but multiple lives. The issue is people who have gone beyond the pale to take other people's lives for no good reason. Lastly, video games and media have only existed for less than a century. Stop avoiding the real issues. People need to take responsibility for who they kill.

@gabriel_true I hate when they point to guns or video games. I just want to ask them 'have people died from bombs or knives, or even bare hands? Shall we ban bare hands too?' And yeah, it's video games, not so much TV blame, and I've rarely seen literature blamed. I don't get the line of thinking that video games can cause violence, but these same people don't think literature could cause violence. It's like, dude, there are tons of people that play games, watch tv, or read, and they haven't killed anyone.

My thoughts are more preventative, though I don't think inmates or the criminally insane should be denied care. Re getting a handle on trained individuals... unfortunately a lot of people I know who went into psychology as a major or career did so because they themselves have mental health issues. The few close friends I had in the past that went that route I wouldn't trust with anything regarding my mental state. But thats kinda the point right? Finding a trained, complete stranger that can listen to you objectively and removed from your life to guide you through your mental issues.

@mrkingofspades Well here's the funny thing, more people in the US were killed by bare hands than the AR-15s they are trying to ban. As far as the video games argument goes. It has been studied and looked into if there was a co-relation for people who play violent video games and to violent behavior. Their argument was that it was extremely hard for people who play video games to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I personally think that the person who can't tell the difference is someone with a legitimate mental illness. As far as the study went. the answer was no, generally they are more likely to hole themselves up in a room and play all day which is a different issue in of itself. However, there is something I tried once. Had a cousin from NY who was obsessed with games like Battlefield and Call of Duty. He was 11 or so at the time, never fired a gun before. I let him use my AK once, the moment he held it and realized it's weight is the moment reality hit him. There is no way to swing the rifle around like some nut in Call of Duty. He got the chance to fire the thing. Instant tears from the sudden shock and noise from the thing. That is the average person.

@thesailingteacup There are certain things to that. Open carry generally means that when you have a gun in it's holster it is exposed for people to see. Like police officers, you see their gun on their waist. However carrying rifles around is more geographical than anything else. Here in NH a cop might drop by and ask a guy with a rifle, "where you going?" Usually he will answer, "Going to shoot over near the power lines." That is the end of the conversation right there. However in NYC I could see reason for concern.