The true root of atrocity is a sick mind

For all the discussion about murders and guns, many seem to be due to drugs and gangs, particularly in large cities, i.e. Chicago.

The most widely known are mass murders, which attract national attention, like the most recent in the church in South Carolina, a terrible tragedy.

Enter Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson or others of their ilk to call these race crimes. It is rarely highlighted that a high percentage of the perpetrators have a long history of serious mental illness. So, while the gun may be the instrument of murder, it is the sick mind that pulls the trigger.

It is also the sick mind that chooses the target group. People who want to turn everything into a race crime do a great disservice to people of all ethnicities, pitting one against another when a sick mind is responsible, but not accountable, for such choices.

We need to spend time and money to get help for the mentally ill, for our safety and theirs.

Karen Goettsche

Inverness