By Jack Mulvey, Staff Writer

June 17, 2022

As of writing, there have been 32 shootings since the tragic massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX on May 24th of this year. I am certain that the death of the 21 innocent people does not need to be recapped and anyone reading this is aware of the tragedy. But the main focus of this writing is not on the shooting or the shooter. It is on the politics surrounding a tragedy like this. 

In the opinion of many Democrats, the true villain of this dark tragedy is the Gun. Or more specifically the Colt Armalite Rifle platform. To many, these “Weapons of War”  should not be in the hands of normal citizens. On the other side of the aisle, Republicans parrot the idea that violence in the media is what causes young men to choose a path to hell. 

In reality, what we are dealing with is a mental health crisis that we have never had to face before. The Republican party is correct that mental health is to blame but once again proves themselves to be the same greedy, cowardly, and corrupt scum that now make up the entirety of the Federal government. 

Instead of campaigning for better mental health facilities and mental health reform, they blame shows, movies, and video games for something that cannot be solved by simply “going outside.”  How can you look at the 45,979 people who took their own lives in 2020 alone and say that people who have a mental disability to “go outside” and “get off their phones” instead of giving these people what they need. 

And the Democratic party is not innocent of this corruption. They beat the same horse with vigor. “How many more must die before you give up your guns?!” They will scream it until their lungs give out. But they ignore two things. One: putting a ban on certain firearms will only make the illegal sale of these illegal weapons more popular and Two: the belief the average gun owner will so easily give them up. There is an honest belief that the US government will be able to conquer their own citizens when they failed after 20 years to beat a barely trained militia with guns that were used 77 years ago. 

What needs to happen is the establishment of new mental health programs and to have what most western nations have in place to support their own people's mental well-being. And we must try and address the growing mental health crisis in the United States in the wake of the long lockdowns caused by Covid. And the massive amount of unrest we have experienced as a nation in the past few years. 

Furthermore, there is a need for some gun reform, mostly better background checks and better firearm training for people wanting to exercise their second amendment rights. 

Controversially I would say that banning fully automatic and semi-automatic rifles is both useless to ending gun crime and against the original purpose of the right to bear arms. To me anyway, the key to keeping a democracy free of tyranny is to ensure its citizens can fight back against those who would oppress them, and therefore allowing people to own these rifles is paramount. Of course, we need to ensure that these weapons being as they are should be owned by people who are mentally well and not prone to hurting themselves or others. And this goes hand in hand with better funding and better infrastructure for mental health so that people with these disorders can get help. 

The other much harder pill to swallow is the fact that much like cocaine in the 1970s during the war on drugs and alcohol during the Prohibition era banning an item does not end the trade of the Item. All that a ban on all firearms will do is encourage criminal elements to illegally traffic firepower into the country. And all that ban will do is force normal civilian gun owners to either illegally buy weapons or be left defenseless against many better-armed criminals. And the natural response is to call the police. After the horrific display in Texas, I don’t believe we can fully rely upon law enforcement as we are encouraged to. 

In the end, I don’t want to repeat the admittedly cynical and pessimistic ending I have with these political articles. And I do believe there is a simple and straightforward way to end this crisis. But it is a long shot at least to me. This country's government has been failing us for years now with the highest offices in the land once considered to be bastions of American virtues and competent officials are now dens of vipers full of division and corruption. It seems almost impossible for any real change to come with the state our government and country are in.