Obama ignores root cause of gun violence

President Obama missed the bull’s eye again (pardon the pun). His primary cure for the violence in this country is gun control. Gun control is a Band-Aid fix at best. Guns are a just a vehicle, not the cause.

I agree with buyer background checks and limited gun control, but these measures will not stop the senseless carnage. The majority of guns used in the recent mass shootings would not even be banned under his proposed legislation. If you look at all of the mass shootings in this country they have only one common element other than guns. The common thread is mental instability of the perpetrators. Stable people do not kill multiple people in mass shootings. You would think that one would focus on the laws and processes that are in effect that deal with mental illness.

In many cases, mental instability is fueled by the extreme violence exhibited in many movies and video games. Think about the close-to-real-life video games where the user becomes the shooter. It doesn’t take a genius to link these type of video games as well as the lurid movies to violent behavior in mentally unstable people.

Obama is heavily linked to the creators and designers of the violent media in Hollywood who have overwhelmingly supported him politically and financially. So political expediency dominates the action in Washington at the expense of fixing the root cause. I have heard little, if any, mention in this administration that has elevated mental instability as the root cause of much of the mass shooting violence.

It takes leadership and courage to buck the system. I have seen neither in this administration. At a time when the nation is focused on this issue, President Obama misses the target. Just another missed opportunity ... so sad.

Bill Koller Des Plaines