The tragedy in Connecticut has generated a lot of discussion. Better gun control is immediately brought up. While I believe better gun control would help, it would not stop the problem. The attachment of Americans to guns of all sorts creates an environment and opportunity for anyone who wants an automatic weapon to obtain one. The information below boggled my mind when I heard about it.
CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -Government records show just in the month of November, Americans tried to buy 2 million guns.There are nearly 130,000 licensed firearms dealers in the United States. 51,000 are retail gun stores according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.Compare that to: 37,000 grocery stores, 14,000 McDonald's restaurants, and 13,000 Starbucks stores nationwide.That means there two times more gun stores than McDonalds and Starbucks combined.Read more: http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/20367936/gun-stores-outnumber-gas-stations-grocery-stores-fast-food-restaurants-in-america#ixzz2FS20fImy
Anyone in America who wants the same weapons our Special Forces soldiers are using can easily obtain them.
Much discussion about making sure people with mental illness don't get access to guns. Much easier said than done.
I read a long discussion about how the closing state psychiatric hospitals has caused these mass murders. Almost all of this information is wrong. How do I know? I did my clinical internship at Fort Logan Mental Health Center in Denver Colorado in 1970-71. State mental institutions were awful, people got sicker, not well. Two major events led to the huge downsizing of state institutions. First, new drugs came out that enabled schizophrenics and others with serious mental disorders to function in the community. They needed a lot of support and help to function, which unfortunately didn't come for the next 15 years. The other major factor was the rise of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Centers.
In Colorado, they took money from the state institutions and funded the mental health centers in the community. California, not just Reagan, did defund mental health, resulting in people on the streets who should not have been released. The vast majority of serial killers and mass murderers suffer from a significant personality disorder. "Crazy people" rarely kill others, and autistic people are the least likely to kill others
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