Is The NRA To Blame For Mass Shootings?

In U.S. schools, there was as much violence as schools in all these countries combined!

Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Scotland, South Africa, South Korea, Swaziland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago

I understand the frustration and anger of not only US citizens, but the world, but one must ask, “Why are there so many more mass school shootings in the US than the rest of the world combined?” And that includes war torn countries where there are no gun restrictions and death is common place. There is something far more; than easy access to guns, at play here.

As much as it is convenient to point fingers at the NRA and gun owners in general but even if you could eradicate guns from world, the problem will still exist. Like I already stated in my last post, NRA Boycott Targeting the Wrong People , if you banned AR15’s another AR15 “like” gun will take it’s place. The news stories always refer to the gun as an “assault type” gun or a gun “similar to an AR15” and show a picture of a very military looking gun. An assault rifle is a hunting rifle dressed to look mean, but it has no more killing power than your typical hunting rifle.

To prevent more unnecessary deaths from mass shootings, there has to be an honest assessment of a combination of factors, including socio-cultural impacts.

Suggested Interventions

Instead of focusing on broad categories such as mental illness, AR15’s, the NRA. The problem must be studied in its entirety. There are certain common factors in most mass shootings and no one factor is to blame.

• Logical and critical thinking must prevail instead of knee jerk decisions made strictly on emotion.
• Society, communities must lose the “None of my business” mentality. People have to be willing to get involved. Years ago, I never got away with anything as a kid, the first time I hitchhiked my father heard about it before I got home. While raising my son as a single mom the whole neighborhood knew my son, finked on him and looked out for him. He knew which old lady handed out cookies, he visited the old couple across the street almost daily when we got home after work. If I didn’t leave for work 2 days in a row someone came to check on me. For numerous reasons we have stopped being a caring, concerned society and value privacy more than community spirit.

On a side note: the concern must be done out of true concern and not in a judgmental way or you only put people on the defensive

• When the police or FBI do get a complaint from a concerned citizen, as is what happened with Nikolas Cruz; it MUST be taken seriously and there has to be a complete file kept on troubled teens even if it does not result in charges.

On a side note: The FBI received two calls, from a concerned citizen, they had gone to the house often because of Cruz’s violent outbursts, he had abused animals, been treated for mental illness and was known to not take his medication, he threatened his mother numerous times and she called the police but none of it was taken seriously enough to remove him from the house or take him in for assessment. It certainly should have sent alarm bells ringing when they got TWO calls from a concerned citizen, one of which lasted over 13 minutes.

• Domestic abuse calls should be recorded even if they do not result in charges. Every time I hear of another mass shooting anywhere I know they are going to discover there was a history of domestic abuse.

On a side note. Domestic abuse is not confined to a marriage situation, it includes dating violence, elder abuse, and abuse against a parent.

• A committee of NRA members, parents and teachers should develop specialized forensic threat assessment teams to evaluate third-party reports of potential danger and devise response plans to threats and safety protocol.
• Schools and parents need to focus on teaching constructive coping skills and anger and conflict resolution starting in elementary schools. Instead of labeling hyper active kids ADD and drugging them, each child needs to be viewed as an individual with unique needs, personalities and home situations. What works for 100 kids might not work for one, that one is not wrong or bad.

• The world, but the US particularly the last year or so, lives in a time of uncertainty. The economy has been struggling and the middle class has all but disappeared. More and more kids go hungry even if their parents work, Trump’s campaign was fraught with anger, racism, hate, and “fake news”. The president of the country brags about grabbing pussy and spouts off like a school bully. He certainly is not a fitting example of honest, respectful, communication or appropriate anger management. There is the threat of losing medical coverage, open hatred towards immigrants and police brutality (the highest in the world). I watch from Canada and get stressed, imagine being a teenager with no coping skills. I have been on social media and voiced an unpopular opinion or didn’t word something exactly right and had people get downright rude and, I swear, had we been face to face they would have stoned me.

On a side note: I have to remind myself that Facebook likes are not an accurate reflection of how likable I am. Add to that pressure the peer pressure and false reality created by social media that sets impossibly high standards that some kids can’t compete with.

• The call for stricter gun laws is pointless the US has weaker gun laws than Canada but they don’t consistently enforce the laws they do have. With the mass shooting in the Texas church killing 27 people the shooter had a history of mental illness and violence. He had escaped from a mental institution in 2012, been caught ordering guns on the mental institution computer and done jail time for domestic abuse of his wife and small son resulting in a dishonorable discharge from the Airforce. All that was reason for him to be denied a gun license, but none of the information had been entered in the system. Has it turns out the Airforce had 4000 names that had not been entered that should have been. There is no way of knowing if those people bought guns in the meantime. Great!! That’s 27 lives that could have been saved.

On a side note; it was an armed citizen who took down the shooter before the cops even got there.

• Obama had enacted stiffer gun regulations through an executive order and made significant efforts to end police brutality. As some of his first acts in office, Trump rescinded them and pardoned Joe Arpaio who had been found guilty of brutality and then ignored orders to stop brutalizing immigrants.

As most people know Canada does not have a problem with mass shootings and we do have stricter gun regulations. I honestly do feel the states could have stricter gun laws but I do not think that is going to solve the epidemic of mass shootings in the US. I think the NRA would be a lot more cooperative if they were not vilified and blamed for the problem when it is a societal problem. It is human nature to fight to keep your rights and be uncooperative when you are being unjustly accused of something as horrific as being responsible for the deaths of innocent teens. Society is copping out. I had someone say to me that “We have to start some where, when gun control doesn’t work we will try something else.” I also had someone tell me “it was her job to love her child, unconditionally, it was not her job to teach her son how to function in society. He will learn on his own what is acceptable by the consequences of his actions.” I happen to believe that is part of the problem, not enough parenting, teaching and guidance. But more to come on that in a future post.

Below is an excerpt taken from a study I found  on the Canadian Government website on Firearm Control.

Numerous studies have been conducted to assess the impact of Canada’s firearms legislation on firearms-related deaths. Studies have attempted to evaluate three different periods of reform, which involved Bill C-51 in 1977, Bill C-17 in 1991, and Bill C-68 in 1995.
According to a 1988 study, “the use of firearms in Canadian homicides has declined since the legislative changes in gun control and capital punishment in late 1976.” However, the study found that the changes in the law had no impact on total standardized national homicide rates.[61] A 1994 report concurred that “[d]ata from Canada from 1969 to 1985 showed that the passage of a stricter firearms control law in 1977 was associated with a decrease in the use of firearms for homicide but an increase in the use of all other methods for homicide.”[62] Another study on the impact of gun control legislation (Bill C-51) in Canada “suggests that controlling access to lethal means for suicide may be an effective tactic.”[63]
However, according to a paper by Professor Robert Mundt,
[t]he evidence suggests that the 1977 legislation has had little perceptible impact in any of the aforementioned areas [violent crime, suicides, and accidental deaths]. One possible reason, apart from the possible conclusion that gun control has no direct effect on behaviour, is that, despite the legislation, the actual availability of
firearms in the hands of Canadians has risen.[64]
A 2004 study looking at the impact of the Firearms Act on suicide found that “[a] decrease in firearm suicides was most noticeable in the under-25 age group, although it was in this same age group that the general suicide rate increased the most. The reduction of firearm suicides was not accompanied by a decrease in overall suicide rates.”[65] Another study found that “[t]here is no discernible impact on public safety by the firearm program”[66] instituted by the Firearms Act.
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/canada.php