I recently read an article that concerned gun control in a
local edition of the Branson Tri-Lakes News. The article was written by Stephen
Herzog and concerned comments made by Taney County Sheriff Jimmie Russell as to
his thoughts concerning what has become a national controversy, ever since
the
events that transpired at the Sandy
Hook elementary school in Connecticut.
Sheriff Russell made it clear in his remarks that he feels
the root cause of many problems with face with shooting lie not in the weapon
as much as it does the on-going failure of our society to address mental heal
issues. In the article, Sherriff Russell noted that ‘they’ve closed two mental
hospitals’ in Missouri;
this occurring at a time when the number of mental patients is on an increase
and not a decrease. An article posted by
ABC
News found a study that shows as many as 1 in 5 Americans currently
suffer some form of mental illness. And, increasingly, these people are falling
through the net that is supposed to be in place to protect the rest of society.
Sheriff Russell also directed some of his remarks to local
area schools and the need felt by some to install persons with concealed carry
privilege onsite as a possible deterrent to random acts of violence. Mr.
Russell felt that while the idea should merit consideration, he would be
concerned that a person who was carrying a concealed weapon might not be able to retain
it properly and so would require additional training.
My response to that
statement would be for the state to insure proper training, but to also insure that they get some guns on
location and then to advertise the fact. The reality is that the chances
for someone to attack one of our schools in the manner that happened at Sandy
Hook is very remote. (Even the gun control lobby acknowledges that fact).
However, I would propose that just the rumor that some personnel ‘may’ be
carrying’ would be enough to deter unstable individuals from even trying. (I
base that assumption on the fact that in every instance of past mass shootings,
these acts were done in ‘gun free zones’). While these shooter may be truly 'insane', they still are intelligent enough to pick the 'softest' targets available.
In summary, I think Sheriff Russell and others might
agree; if you enforce the laws currently on the books, make gun offenses
Federal offenses, teach kids responsible gun safety and protect our school
children in the same manner we protect our money in banks, then everything just
might work out!
