Letters on gun control, compromise, faith in neighbors, evolution

Hard to predict, prevent violence

I am a psychiatrist with 30 years of experience treating the mentally ill of all ages and from all walks of life. I must sadly inform you that improvement in mental health care delivery is not likely to have any significant impact on America’s epidemic of gun violence.

But aren’t perpetrators of mass shootings mentally ill? Perhaps, but we have no effective treatments for the personality disorders connected to many violent acts.

Certainly we need better funding and support for mental health services. Access to psychiatric care has deteriorated, especially over the past five years or so as funding for state mental hospitals and community mental health centers has been gutted by the Legislature.

Mental health professionals are good at treating depression, schizophrenia and a host of other conditions. But research shows that they do little better than anyone else in predicting or preventing violence.

So what can be done? My answer will not be well-received by many: Repeal the Second Amendment to the Constitution. If it stands in the way of sensible control of handguns, especially, then it is time for it to go.

Other solutions

Almost half of all guns in civilian ownership on this planet are held by Americans, according to the Guardian newspaper. Firearms are the cause of death for more than 33,000 people in America every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. There have been, according to the Washington Times, 142 school shootings since Sandy Hook on Dec. 14, 2012.

The Umpqua Community College shooting was the 294th mass shooting in the United States in 2015, according to Shootingtracker.com. There have been 994 mass shootings (four or more people shot) since Sandy Hook in 2012, again according to the Guardian. Finally, the death toll of these shootings is about 1,240 since the beginning of 2013.

One way to deal with these statistics is to blame those persons in our society who have “mental issues.” Or we can point our fingers at the lack of resources to serve those with “mental issues.” In my opinion, there are other solutions:

Ban assault weapons; ban multiple shot clips; require complete background checks for every gun sale; require a 10-day waiting period for all gun sales; throw out of office any state or federal legislator who is paid by the gun lobby and refuses to help reduce gun violence in our nation.

We are a people living in a culture of fear. Why else would we need to carry a weapon or have an arsenal of military-style weapons in our homes? Have courage. End gun violence, now.

Don’t compromise

Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr., former Sen. Bob Dole and others champion “compromise” as a desirable trait. They claim it’s a good thing to settle disagreements with a common-ground approach. I and many others disagree.

Compromise is more a selling out of one’s principles. A dishonorable concession. It’s a chance for the liberals to keep chipping away at the truth until it is no longer recognizable. It has been that way for all of recorded history. What starts out as a black-and-white, right-and-wrong issue gets twisted and turned so much that, soon, all that’s left is one big gray area.

That is exactly the liberals’ agenda. That way they can justify any behavior.

I am reminded of the statement from space shuttle engineers after Columbia was destroyed during re-entry. From a tiny crack in the heat shield tiles on the shuttle’s wing, “the integrity of the spacecraft was compromised, resulting in complete destruction.” And that, my friends, is where this country is headed if conservatives continue to “compromise” our integrity. Complete destruction.

Do it for love

Look around. Look at the people of different colors coming home from an honest day’s work.

Many of them don’t do it for the money, because their jobs pay them very little. They do it for their families. They do it for the ones they love. You can see it in their tiredness, in their resignation, and you can feel it in their commitment.

The basic nature of mankind is good. Don’t let a few bad apples ruin your faith in your neighbor.

Moral basis

The “why” and “how” of existence can never truly be separated. Much of current science has endorsed the most absurdly unscientific fable ever known to man: that nothing produces everything by chaos, accident and random chance. This not only defies every law of science, it denies that science can even exist, by denying the existence of cause and effect. This results in a total denial of “why,” or purpose of existence.

The universe is reduced to a large cosmic accident, and the human race to a tribe of mutated baboons. The moral basis of existence is “survival of the fittest.”

However, when one looks objectively and truly scientifically at our superbly engineered and meticulous, finely tuned universe, and examines the almost infinite complexity of life, intelligent design is the only scientifically acceptable explanation. This gives a moral basis to “love God and your neighbor as yourself,” the foundation of “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on gun control, compromise, faith in neighbors, evolution."