Address real reason shootings occur
The all-too-recent Lane Bryant and Northern Illinois University killings, along with other mass shootings around the country, will surely bring out louder demands for even stricter guns laws. But what good would these laws do when we may be skirting the issue of why and how these massacres occur?
I do recall when a lot of us were kids growing up during the Great Depression and up to World War II. It was an era of very tight money when most people could not afford guns -- period. People who were mentally deranged in that time zone, who could present a danger to themselves or society, were simply warehoused in mental wards much like in medieval times. Moreover, we were entertained by non-violent "feel- good" family movies as opposed to the violent Hollywood offerings of today that tend to serve as blueprints for individuals prone to violence.
Great strides were made in the postwar years in developing drugs for the treatment of mental illness. These newly-developed drugs soon emptied mental wards and put these patients out on the street to get on with their lives. Most of them succeeded in being productive members of society as they faithfully continued their drug regimen. These are the lucky ones who had and still have strong family support and take their medications faithfully.
Unfortunately we have those who don't have strong family ties and nobody to monitor if they are continuing to take their medications. This of course is a prescription for disaster. As these individuals deteriorate they soon become the homeless while others become loners but have the financial means to buy guns even as they slowly become mentally unglued once more.
Perhaps we should require doctors treating people with dangerous psychiatric conditions to turn in the names of those patients who go off their medications. In retrospect they already have the authority to turn in the names of patients with dangerous medical conditions in order to have their driving privileges revoked.
Walter Santi
Bloomingdale