Mental Health and The Media...

So which will it be? One or Both to blame for the awful slaughter of the innocents 2 days ago?  The media sets the stage with it's bombastic forets into the horror of it all, all the blood, the body bags (or the bodies if they can be seen), the blinking lights of police and fire and ambulances.  All of this and interviews with the victims whether or not they were shot (they are victims still), then come the inevitable comparrisons with previous acts of violence and mayhem followed shortly thereafter with possible future ones.  Can't we gag the press for 48 or 72 hours?  An instant gag just as a judge "gags" a jury...infact a immediate injunction against out of county newspapers and bloggers too, just shut them up to allow the smoke and terror interest to subside.  What's wrong with that?  Not constitutional?  Do it and see. Test it in the courts, refine it, legislate it.  It certainly would help all closely concerned don't you think?

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Then the next part...Mental Health.  We all go to school, we are examined every day that we are, should not schools develop referal programs to establish a connection to the mental health facilities available in the local community? 

Guns and Ammo...

Guns...what a subject, without Ammunition they are almost useless, certainly the sight of even an empty gun in a certain location is at least alarming, even to those who possess guns.  A gun in the woods...ce normale', in a grocery store...that's different.  In our United States there are guns in the hands of every kind of human being, white, black, brown, yellow, red, sane, less sane, insane, liberal or conservative, male or female.  Mostly they are never used for anything once purchased.  They lie in drawers, thrown in boxes or closets to hide in the stuff of our lives.  They asre unused tools that have an unusual use, they kill.  Yes other things can kill and DO...cars are but one example, knives, ropes, panty hose, water, screwdrivers, bricks and pillows.  They are all benign things as well and used improperly can do as a gun does when it is used for it's intended purpose, kill.  No big point made or needed, it's obvious that the horse left the barn here about 237 years ago.  What we need is certainly less effort towards gun controls and more effort towards people controls.  People can be convinced, coerced, urged, prohibited, licensed, encouraged...guns cannot.  We all know that those with mental illnesses should not be found in possession of any gun for any reason at any particular time.  Certainly guns are used to kill by those who are perfectly (imperfectly too) sane, hunters, police persons, home owners, shop owners etc.  The best controls are already in place one could argue,  gun registration, Federal Firearms Licenses, gun locks, gun safes, background checks...on and on they go.  Certainly allowing the future perpetrators of gun-related violence and crime access to semi-automatic weapons easily modified to become fully automatic is asking for more of what we had at that school, it was the gun he chose to use and it had NOT been so modified, just handy and fast shooting and easy to reload quickly to do the most damage in the quickest way.  That's what the military wants in a weapon.  Is that clear?  Later...