We here in Connecticut are on the verge of having the strictest gun control laws in the nation signed into effect. They go far beyond anything currently in effect and have the greatest impact on those who are law abiding gun owners. Here in Connecticut, it is an extremely touch subject as just a few months ago we dealt with the Sandy Hook School shooting that took the lives of 26 people, most of them children. The act of violence in and of itself was horrendous and affected many people. It took me almost a week to return to normal after the fact and I didn't even personally know anyone related to the incident. I cried and I grieved just like many in our state did. Yet, even immediately following the shooting, I never placed the blame on an inanimate object that was utilized to kill. I don't own any guns, yet I one day hope to, not for target shooting or home defense; I don't even want to carry a pistol around to protect me during the day. The only reason I would buy a gun would be to go hunting, not for sport, but for food. No, I wouldn't be using high capacity clips that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition because as most people know, you don't go hunting with large clips, ever, and if you do, you don't deserve to be hunting. The ban on clips larger than ten rounds is perhaps the one aspect of the gun control legislation that I actually support. Outside of that, I believe it is all a bogus effort to try and put people's minds at ease. While it may placate some individuals, it won't solve any problems. It does nothing to solve the large issue of illegal gun violence, more often perpetrated by criminals on the streets using either stolen guns or ones bought on the black market. This legislation will do nothing to curb that trend which in the end results in a much larger loss of life than the Sandy Hook tragedy. Are we to say that just because 26 children died in a nice quiet community in Newtown, those lives somehow mean more than all those lost in the inner cities in Connecticut due to drive by shootings, accidental shootings, or other means? Any loss of life is horrendous, no matter where or how it happens, and my biggest concern is that we are wasting time going after the wrong aspect of gun control, controlling guns for mostly law abiding citizens who would never dream of using their guns for anything other than target shooting, hunting, or in the rare case, home defense.
The biggest argument that people might have for gun control is that if Adam Lanza, the shooter in the Sandy Hook tragedy hadn't had large capacity clips, he wouldn't have killed as many people. Yet, on the same day in China, a man took a knife and killed 22 people. I ask, what's the difference? While enacting strict gun control legislation should we also consider putting a ban on knives? Following that logic, any "weapon" should be heavily regulated and have laws against it, so how about the utility knife? The common theme in both the killings in Sandy Hook and China is not the weapon used, but the issue that both men were dealing with; mental health. Even with the added emphasis on mental health included in the law being signed into effect, not nearly enough is being done to address that side of the issue. Does anyone seriously think that if Adam Lanza didn't have large capacity clips that he wouldn't have committed the tragedy? I highly doubt it. I don't think it would have mattered one bit if he had large clips or small clips. Even with a ten round clip, the amount of time it takes to change that clip is minuscule. A skilled marksman trained in weaponry could change a clip in a second or less. That means even if he wasn't skilled in changing clips, he still could have changed the clip in under 5 seconds, hardly enough time for people to react between bullets being fired at them. Most people wouldn't even notice the pause between bullets while the clip was being changed. So how is this law going to change anything besides making it harder to buy guns of any kind. And lets not forget the one minor detail that most lawmakers have forgotten in all of this. They are saying that everyone who owns a larger capacity clip must now register it. Yet, no clip has a serial number on it that is unique to that clip. How are they going to track who registers them and who doesn't? This bill was rushed through due to high emotions and lack of thought and in the end will do nothing to curb the violence.
A better measure that the legislature could have taken would have been to re-open mental health hospitals and perhaps put more regulations on doctors and psychotropic medications which are a much bigger catalyst than guns. If you look at any of the mass killings, nearly every single person was on a psychotropic medication of some sort which severely alters your mental state. Yet no attention is being paid to that end. Why? Because the pharmaceutical industry has its hands deeper into the pockets of politicians than the gun lobbyists. No one wants to talk about mental health for fear of offending someone. Well, maybe its time we started offending some people and brought that issue to the fore front of the discussion. If Adam Lanza had been getting treatment in an institution rather than just popping his meds at home with no oversight, then perhaps we could have averted this tragedy before it happened. Yet we jump to the guns. Perhaps if people around the Lanza family had brought their concerns about Adam to his mother and other doctors, he could have been treated more effectively to the point where he didn't feel the need to grab a bunch of guns and go kill 26 people. The more we focus on guns, the more we lose sight of the real issue at hand here, mental health. My wife, who is a high school teacher, does not support this gun law, and I don't either. She does not want a pistol in the house or any sort of weapon other than a rifle or a shotgun for hunting, and I agree with her. Yet we both feel this law goes beyond protection to an infringement of rights. Anyone who agrees with this law needs to look beyond the mere aspect of guns, get over their fear of them, and start to look at the broader picture. Yes, the tragedy in Newtown was horrific. I would never wish that upon anyone and my heart broke for those families as did many hearts in Connecticut. Yet, to say that this legislation will solve anything is like speaking out of your ass, only shit comes out.
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