Emotionally-driven legislation to ban bump stocks allows people who are unwilling to admit there’s a real problem (i.e., mental illness) to divert the nation’s attention away from that fact. However, America’s mental health crisis remains the line of discussion most politicians and reporters seem least interested in pursuing. That is because there are no bogeymen to demonize and no quick and easy answers available in 30-second sound bites.
The first step toward addressing a mental health issue is recognizing the fact that there is a real problem in America. Mentally ill individuals can wreak havoc with a kitchen knife in a classroom, an automobile in a crowded setting or homemade explosives built with everyday components. Rather than attempting to outlaw inanimate objects (the bureaucrat’s quick-fix solution), let’s look for ways to identify and treat the root causes of violent incidents (e.g., mental health issues, lack of economic opportunity due US fiscal and trade policies, etc.).
Emotionally-driven legislation to ban bump stocks allows people who are unwilling to admit there’s a real problem (i.e., mental illness) to divert the nation’s attention away from that fact. However, America’s mental health crisis remains the line of discussion most politicians and reporters seem least interested in pursuing. That is because there are no bogeymen to demonize and no quick and easy answers available in 30-second sound bites.
The first step toward addressing a mental health issue is recognizing the fact that there is a real problem in America. Mentally ill individuals can wreak havoc with a kitchen knife in a classroom, an automobile in a crowded setting or homemade explosives built with everyday components. Rather than attempting to outlaw inanimate objects (the bureaucrat’s quick-fix solution), let’s look for ways to identify and treat the root causes of violent incidents (e.g., mental health issues, lack of economic opportunity due US fiscal and trade policies, etc.).