To all the families first and foremost I am sorry for your loss. My words probably do nothing to help but I truly am sorry.
For all the friends who lost their friends who lost their friends, I am truly sorry. No amount of my words can make it any better.
Many people are talking and many ideas are being talked about.
GUNS and MENTAL HEALTH.
I address both topics below.
I address both topics below.
GUNS
The media wants you to believe it is all about GUNS.
Guns caused all of this. You weren't there. You don't know how it felt! Guns only add to the problem. We need tighter gun laws and gun restrictions. Yes, I hear it all everyone.
Couldn't it be just as easily about; Knives? Baseball Bats? Forks? Spoons? Pens? Pencils, etc, etc? Well, now you're just being stupid and ridiculous now you might say.
Are any of those more stupid than the ever continuing argument about guns. Really think about it. I will wait.
Well, guns do all this damage and take so many out so fast. That is true. However; you can do the same amount of damage if not more with any of the aforementioned subjects I listed above.I know I have seen it happen before.
Some of the very places where weaponized crimes happen in the USA, and have happened currently, have some of the most stringent and toughest gun laws on the books. Gun laws only help to deter law-abiding citizens. Not criminals.
Signs posted state: No Guns Allowed On-Premises and these are listed on many buildings, schools, churches, hospitals, etc. Does that honestly stop the criminal or the law-abiding citizen?
Take a moment and really think about that question. I'll wait.
The sad truth everyone is this, and no one ever wants to look at this. If a criminal wants a weapon and be it a gun, knife, etc, they will find a way to get one, and the only loss of life will once again be law-abiding citizens.
What the law-abiding citizens of this nation these United States need is patient understanding, and consistent, constant, training in safety (first and foremost) and in the use and understanding of the utilization of firearms.
They are not to be feared. My gun on my hip is for my safety. If necessary it will be utilized for the safety of others should a situation arise that puts all of our lives in immediate danger.
There are only two ways to convince someone to do something or anything in this life. By coercion or by force.
I (like maybe many of you) am not coerced into doing anything. I will do as I wish (under the eyes of the law) as I see fit.
So that leaves the only threat of force. If I have a threat of force of my own, that can negate your threat of force, then the playing field is now equal, and instead of being a victim of the circumstance you may try to take advantage of me in, now that the playing field is equalized, you now have to re-think what you were planning to do.
We used to have that in this nation many decades ago. When we lost it and allowed the laws we have now to override common sense, we started becoming victims of the outcomes these laws dictate.
Until people start taking the responsibility once again to learn, and understand, again in this nation, and stand up to not be counted as victims, the tide will start turning, and people will no longer have to live in fear.
The truth of the matter is we need a discussion not on the weapons people use and or utilize but on the people behind any weapon.
MENTAL HEALTH
We face a great deal as citizens of this nation.
Bombardment by the media every day, from television, to social, to online.
Chemicals in our foods, and drinks. Chemicals in the medicines we take, Chemicals in the air we breathe.
Life all by itself, is stressful, hard, and tough, all by itself.
Couple this, with chemical imbalances in the brain, due to either natural or man-made, medical health afflictions. feelings of hopelessness, loss, being lost, be trapped, feeling down, depressed, any number of these factors I am forgetting and it starts to brew the ingredients up into a perfect storm of mental instability.
What we do know about Mental Health is minimal at best. As the supposed most prosperous nation on earth, that fact alone is sad.
Many decades ago, depending on ailments, or mental health issues, we would stick people (family members or friends) in mental asylums and leave them be to forget them. Why you might ask? We just didn't want to bothered. We didn't have the time. We didn't know enough about it. We felt they could receive the care they needed by people better trained than us.
Truth is folks we just didn't care enough. Maybe if we did, we would be further along in our understandings of the brain/mind and what it can withstand or how it can be affected by outside influences and factors beyond what we do now.
We still are doing the same things we did all those decades ago to these individuals, even though we understand a lot more about the brain than we did back then.
The lack of understanding, patience, and empathy in this subject matter is the real tragedy and a great deal of the cause of what is going on in our nation today with all of these mass shootings, and ever-increasing level of brutal crimes.
Strides must be made in mental health, for caring for, to diagnosing properly and developing medications that ARE NOT just industrial grade pharmaceutical dope to keep individuals brain dead or comatose.
That is not how to deal with this. This practice is also done to seizure and stroke patients, I know this personally. It is sad and sickening.
So let us have some real conversations here everyone.Let's take some time out of our personal busy lives to really figure this stuff out.
I am no scientist, no engineer, no doctor, and I certainly do not know it all, but I am willing to speak to any and all of you that are, and lets see if we can come up with a better idea, understanding, and gameplan to help those that need the help before they continue on in becoming so lost and broken, that these types of tragedies continue to happen.
- Jb Brock
