I think the real issue is not too many guns but a lack of mental health care. Let me explain. It shocked me to find out that, generally speaking, the cities with the strictest gun control laws have the most crime and the cities with the most guns have the lowest crime. Internationally, when comparing countries, the same principle plays out. Conclusion? When the people bear arms there is less crime.
So if gun control will not stop "crazy" (President Obama's word) gunmen what do we do?
The mentally ill must be offered treatment. And, as you consider paying for that last statement, realize that one of those receiving treatment just might eventually be you.
One in five people in the United States will experience their own mental illness in their lifetime. That is 60 million people. Yet voting for funding to meet this challenge isn't popular. Ignorance, fear of the unknown, stigma, blame all contribute to distort the perception of the disease and its treatment. Medication and behavior therapies can dramatically help a dramatic number of sufferers of mental illness. And it costs much less than paying for the prison stays many, many sufferers of mental illness are forced to endure. It costs less than hospitalization. And, if you value human life, it costs less than suicide or homicide.
But that is just the start. Because when you treat mental illness you rescue someone from a prison of intense psychological and sometimes physical suffering. You release the person to be what God intended them to be. They can even stop costing taxpayers and start becoming taxpayers and actually start paying back those who funded their rescue.
Since getting the correct meds and taking them starting in 1985 I have worked for 23 years as an Advertising Designer. I have given back in taxes and charitable giving, roughly between $150,000 and $200,000 during that 23 year period (adjusted to 2008 dollars).
I have also had the privilege to marry my beautiful wife and adopt out of foster care the two boys I love. So much beauty can happen when someone who is mentally ill gets the right treatment. Financially it goes from negative to positive. And, humanly, it goes from a living death, to the light of life.
So if gun control will not stop "crazy" (President Obama's word) gunmen what do we do?
The mentally ill must be offered treatment. And, as you consider paying for that last statement, realize that one of those receiving treatment just might eventually be you.
One in five people in the United States will experience their own mental illness in their lifetime. That is 60 million people. Yet voting for funding to meet this challenge isn't popular. Ignorance, fear of the unknown, stigma, blame all contribute to distort the perception of the disease and its treatment. Medication and behavior therapies can dramatically help a dramatic number of sufferers of mental illness. And it costs much less than paying for the prison stays many, many sufferers of mental illness are forced to endure. It costs less than hospitalization. And, if you value human life, it costs less than suicide or homicide.
But that is just the start. Because when you treat mental illness you rescue someone from a prison of intense psychological and sometimes physical suffering. You release the person to be what God intended them to be. They can even stop costing taxpayers and start becoming taxpayers and actually start paying back those who funded their rescue.
Since getting the correct meds and taking them starting in 1985 I have worked for 23 years as an Advertising Designer. I have given back in taxes and charitable giving, roughly between $150,000 and $200,000 during that 23 year period (adjusted to 2008 dollars).
I have also had the privilege to marry my beautiful wife and adopt out of foster care the two boys I love. So much beauty can happen when someone who is mentally ill gets the right treatment. Financially it goes from negative to positive. And, humanly, it goes from a living death, to the light of life.
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