The following is MY opinion. If you agree or disagree, feel free to comment and we can discuss further from there. Just keep it civil.
Another shooting recently occurred. This time it was at The Dark Knight Rises movie premiere in Colorado. I have noticed after any shooting, there will always be people claiming that guns should be banned and destroyed and cease existing. I strongly disagree.
What will happen if guns are banned? 2 things:
1. Guns and other weaponry will ALWAYS be accessible, even if they are banned. If you want something badly enough, you will get it. But how will someone get a hold of guns if they are banned, you ask? Believe it or not, there is always a way around the system. In this day and age, it is possible to get anything you want.
2. So, someone worked their way around the system, and they decided to go on a shooting rampage. Guess what? You don’t have a weapon to protect yourself. Don’t you feel stupid?
The saying goes, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people”. I can’t stress the veracity of this statement enough. Guns are dangerous, but with the proper training they can be used as self protection. There is always going to be some sort of sick individual having life troubles and deciding to take out their frustrations by shooting people. Would you rather have a concealed weapon on you that is there for protection? Or would you rather try to face bullets flying at you with no weapon at all?
Another problem society has, is ignoring the troubled individuals. Granted, there won’t always be warning signs. For example, not many people knew James Holmes, the shooter at the movie premiere. His own mother knew the police “got the right person” when they called her about the shooting. She obviously saw a few warning signs- why didn’t she notify the proper authority before something like this happened? I know it may be hard to grasp the concept that your own flesh and blood might be disturbed or even dangerous, but without getting help, others may lose their lives because of ignorance. Troubled individuals are hard books to read. They may act out, they may not. You never know. You can never be too careful.
Dr. Park Dietz, M.D., P.H.D., identified a few warning signs of a mass murderer. Securityinfowatch.com interviewed Dr. Dietz..
SIW: What is the psychological profile of someone who’s willing to carry out a mass shooting?
Dietz: The real issues with mass murderers is that all of them are both sad and depressed enough to be willing to die and also angry or paranoid enough that they are blaming other people for their suffering and misfortune. Those are two of the critical ingredients, there has never been a mass murderer, acting alone, who didn’t have both of those (characteristics) in mass murders against strangers where mass murder is defined as three or more people dead in one incident for psychological reasons.
Are there any warning signs that a person maybe getting ready to commit an atrocity such as this?
Dietz: There are always countless warning signs observed by nearly everyone who has had contact with the person and often for years. Unfortunately, those warning signs are not very specific and so they apply to many people who will never be violent toward anyone but themselves and they apply to many people for short term reasons that will go away. In order to be able to catch in your net, everyone who will do a mass murder, you need to err on the side of catching hundreds or thousands of people with similar behaviors who will never commit a mass murder no matter what you do. When prediction suffers form that problem, it is necessary to be very thoughtful about what you do to the false positives who you identify as having some of the warning signs. This is easy to prevent among employees or students on a campus or patients in hospital, and very difficult to prevent in society at large under our system of law.
I propose that instead of worrying about gun laws and banning guns, we need to start looking for warning signs of those trouble individuals. If you do happen to spot someone that is acting a little strange, call the local police station and talk to someone that can help you. It’s better to call someone in and be wrong about them, then to ignore them and find out months later that they really were troubled and went on to kill people.
We need to stop worrying about the dangers of guns, and start protecting ourselves.
The full article with Dr. Dietz can be found here.
Like I said before, this post is merely just my opinion. I encourage different views and other opinions just as much. If you have a pulse, I’m sure you have an opinion. Feel free to comment.
krispx 