Proactive Instead of Reactive

The people of Texas are heartbroken today. The senseless, cruel, evil, immoral mass shooting in Uvalde has rocked our state and broken our hearts. Sadly, politicians are running about proclaiming all kinds of political solutions. These people are doing no service to our country or the people of Uvalde. They are only attempting to push their political agenda. The biggest tragedy is most of these mass shootings in our country could have been prevented. There were plenty of indicators that the perpetrators of the mass shootings were preparing for their evil deeds. And all of these signs were ignored.

9/11 Didn’t have to happen, there was adequate intelligence that the attack on the towers was coming. That information was not shared amongst law enforcement and the military. Mass shootings in our schools could’ve been prevented. Just as the situation in Uvalde, there were a number of indicators that this young man was apt to do something violent. But no one looked at these indicators and put them together to form the total picture. There is adequate data to support that none of these events were spontaneous. Thought and planning were put into each one. The US Secret Service has the responsibility of protecting the life of the President of the United States. As a result, they are the leaders in looking for ways to prevent something from happening as opposed to being reactionary after it’s over. I commend to you the reading of a study done by the US Secret Service regarding this issue. It’s all about finding the indicators that something is going to happen, and then doing something proactive to stop it. Here is a link to the website containing the report: Legislators tend to think everything can be solved by writing a new law. In the area of gun violence, if that statement were true, Chicago would be the safest city in the World. It’s way past time to have our legislators take their minds off their political goals to achieve power and put them on the victims of situations like we just witnessed in Uvalde.

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Extreme hate is a mental illness

I have owned firearms since I was a young boy. I have been taught how to use them properly. The ones I currently own are kept in a safe place, but extremely handy in case someone breaks into our house at night. I’ve never shot anyone and have no intention of doing so. The exception to that would be a self-defense situation. Why the regulatory system doesn’t work, I believe, is rather simple. I have never seen a gun jump out of a drawer, come off a shelf in the closet, or out of the kitchen drawer and run out in the street and shoot someone all by itself. Common sense tells you things like that just do not happen. A gun is inert. It’s a piece of metal that does absolutely nothing wrong until it gets into the hands of someone with an evil tent. You can make the same argument for knives, pitchforks, bricks, baseball bats, and any other object that can damage a human being. The responsibility is in the hands of the user. Isn’t it time that our politicians take an attitude similar to the US Secret Service? That is being proactive rather than reactive. I am not a big believer in heavy regulation, however, would it be too much to ask teachers and coaches to report a child that has an unusual and perhaps threatening behavior? Would it be wrong, to have this data fed into a formal system that contacted local law and social services? Would it be wrong then for law enforcement and social services to check on this individual? And after doing these checks would it be wrong to have this individual placed in a facility for evaluation and perhaps treatment? Extreme hate is a mental illness, and sadly there’s too much of that in our country and too many politicians that are fanning the flames of hate in order to get elected or to defeat an opponent. It’s way past time that things be changed. Become proactive to find the shooter before they do their evil deed.