Guns don’t hurt people – People hurt people

Our country faced a senseless horror last week with the mass killing of innocent lives. Twenty Congressional Liberals spontaneously reacted to a “quick fix.” This Liberal reaction was an attempt to tamper with our Second Amendment. Let’s hit the brakes for a moment.

First and foremost, we need to recognize that guns don’t hurt or kill innocent victims; people hurt and kill innocent victims. Extra precautions had already been implemented at Sandy Hook Elementary School before last Friday, yet the horrific mass murders were still carried out. Evil will continue to find its ugly face into our lives.

Not surprising, while 20 Liberal lawmakers got on their soapbox about our Second Amendment, not a single lawmaker addressed what is at the root of what is happening to our society. We’ve allowed medical marijuana to become an acceptable “medication” in our society—a much more potent mix than street marijuana. Society is being over prescribed mind-altering medications. We’ve allowed the medical arena to “diagnose” the mentally ill—desperately in need of psychiatric hospital care—to “be cured in a mere five days and released back into society” simply because some took advantage long ago. We’ve now gone too far in the opposite direction.

Congress refuses to address the tough issues:  Why are we overmedicating and why aren’t we finding a safe haven for the mentally ill to go to after they are “supposedly cured” far too early after receiving psychiatric treatment? Why is mental illness treated so disparagingly different as compared to every other disease?

Congress doesn’t acknowledge the devastating outcome if the mentally ill are on mind-altering drugs while self medicating with illegal drugs (oftentimes simply with marijuana) when the outcome can cause one to go into a psychotic episode, leading to a dangerous and devastating event.

Oftentimes families do not take the mentally ill loved one back home after psychiatric treatment because of the lack of medical skills needed or the loved one is too dangerous to have in the home or the family is simply mentally and physically exhausted or because the family is financially flat broke. With no help or hope in sight, the devastating outcome is often homelessness for the mentally ill.

Or what happens far too often, did HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) denies the Lanza family access to Adam’s medical records and the ability to help their loved one get the necessary medical treatment?
The strictest gun control laws have been implemented in Chicago, yet Chicago is now the most dangerous city in our country. Chicago has proven that stricter gun control isn’t the only solution. The bad guys will always circumvent the system while the good guys are punished and left defenseless.

Do we restrict ones on mind-altering (antidepressants) medications from gun ownership? Do we allow the school principal to have a concealed weapon on her person and be trained how to use it if such a crisis occurred as we witnessed on Friday? Do schools hire a plain-clothed policeman to protect our children?

One thing is for certain: Congress must change the HIPAA restrictions for the immediate family. Currently immediate family members have to be granted access to a family member’s medical status. How can one help if one is denied access?

It is necessary that we rethink what the legalization of marijuana is doing to our loved ones. We need to rethink what mind-altering drugs are doing to our society while leaving necessary medical treatment off the table.

At the very least, we owe the highest honor to Dawn Hochsprung, principal, and Mary Sherlach, teacher, for first rushing the gunman; Anne Marie Murphy; Victoria Soto, teacher, who hid her students in a closet and then sacrificed her life for them; and surviving teacher, Kaitlin Roig, for hiding her 14 students in the bathroom and keeping them safe when her classroom was so near the gunman.

God bless these innocent families and we pray that something good will come out of this utter devastation.

For comments, contact Barbara J. Carlson at Barbara@FortBendBusinessJournal.com.

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Posted by FortBendStar on Dec 19 2012. Filed under Conservative Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.