Mental Bastardation

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First and foremost; may God Bless the victims of the Arizona shooting this weekend. Our hearts go out to the families involved, all the families; yes, even the shooter's family. We hope and pray that they may find peace in His arms and lay their sorrow at His feet. May the souls of the dead find their own lost loved ones in the fold of a most gracious God. Peace be upon the families and Godspeed to the healing of the injured.

I almost didn't even write about this incident. What a tragedy for those involved. However, as the political winds blow, this event has already been politicized by the most vile of human debris. My attempt will be to leave it at that for the most part. You know who they are. What I hope to do is to add some critical thought to the process. We need to engage in a forensic study of why do things like this happen, and what can we do to minimize these events?

It seems like every time in American history that something like this happens; by this I mean a shooting by a clearly disturbed person; the so-called journalist immediately begin the yoga position reporting whereby they search for all of the possible reasons why on earth someone might do such a thing, except for the one obvious reason. Because they're crazy. I don't mean certifiably insane. That would make things much easier. Many times they are not simply disturbed, but also selfish, lazy, obnoxious, incompetent and always...always quick to blame the world for the condition they find themselves in. Now if the last part sounds familiar then you've been reading a good blog lately. So we don't need to go too deeply into the reasons that the lackeys in the press do what they do. We all know by now. They are not journalists, they are simple minded propagandists. But we do need to recognize that there are some similarities in these events and take heed of the steps needed to make them more rare.

Should the mentally disturbed be able to buy guns? Of course any reasonable person would say no. Then of course comes the less obvious question. Who gets to decide who among us is disturbed. 'Big Sis' (Janet Napolitano - Homeland Security Head) thinks I am because I have a healthy distrust of government. Never mind that government has done it's very best to prove I'm right, someone who hates the government must be off just a bit in her opinion. Medical professionals seem like the way to go but what if the person doesn't want to go? Where in the Constitution does it give the government the power to force psyche evaluations on it's subjects? What about our distinguished veterans? How many of them have suffered at one time with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome PTSD from the war zone that we thrust them into? Are we then to say that all of these vets are disturbed and shouldn't own guns? As you can see it gets very dicey very quickly. I believe that a reasonable solution would be that if three independent and reasonably competent individuals, peers if you will, express concern over ones mental faculty, then the people have a right to have that individual evaluated. Even if a full commitment is not in order there could be some court ordered treatment. If any degree of paranoia or schizophrenia are suspected, that individual should not be allowed to buy a firearm. Now, does this mean they won't get one? Of course not. But at least it makes it a little more difficult and expensive and perhaps will deter a few. After all, there is only so much we can do here folks. Freedom isn't free.

Is political rhetoric causing more individuals to 'go off'? If so, there's nothing we can do about it. Political discourse is and always will be rancorous. Go back and read some of the vile things spewed during the first few elections in this country. It has been the same for centuries and always will be. Personally, I don't believe it has much to do with it at all. Why? Because as I stated above these individuals almost always tend to blame everyone but themselves for their failures. If one thing doesn't set them off they will find something else. Their concept of the world around them is not based in reality anyway. They find demons where none exist. Why on earth would a rational person believe that if we just tippy toe around them all will be well? Of course, this is utterly ridiculous. Does that mean that all bets are off and we should be as vitriolic as we can? Certainly not. However, the truth hurts. And the truth is what we need whether someone gets offended or not.

Should we provide more security for our public servants? This one is difficult. Our government as a whole needs to be protected. Certainly the halls of government in D.C. deserve adequate protection especially in light of the very real terrorist threat that we live under today. However, events such as the one in which this tragedy occurred are a different animal. Please, quit pretending that these politicians are doing these events for the 'constichuncy'. They are ultimately self-serving and we all know it. How hard is it for a legislator to hire a few off duty police to show up, watch the crowd and at the very least provide some return fire? I believe that security for this type of event should be provided by the politicians. They can take it out of their health care stipend.

Will more stringent gun laws prevent these tragedy's? Seriously? Can we please at least pretend that we understand crime? It is against the law to shoot people in the head. Did that prevent it? So how in Hades is a new gun law supposed to help? We have discussed the mentally ill and some steps that may prevent them from legally owning a gun, but if they are determined and willing to ignore the law against killing people they are most certainly willing to purchase an illegal weapon or steal one. If anything I wish a sharp concealed carry citizen had been standing right next to this idiot. For those that watch the news, yes, that was Peter King a so called republican proposing a new law outlawing guns within 1000 yards of the special people. This just goes to prove that mental libtardation is not just an affliction of the democrat party. Please help wipe out mental libtardation. Because; Liberty is a terrible thing to waste. Geesh! What a dufus. I'm sorry but this level of incompetence is what is killing this great nation.

What can we do about these people? You know what? It isn't as hard as you think. What we really need to do...is talk! We have become a nation of introverts. We see things, we hear things but we say nothing. We go home and talk to our loved ones and then drop it. We see crazy things going on around us and we just drop our heads and try to stay away from it all. We need to become a community again. We need to talk. Neighbors need to get together and discuss these things. Clearly, many people around this individual knew he was off a bit. Talk about it! Call the police and have the parents come out and discuss it. Ask them what are they doing about this? If they don't know what to do, suggest a counselor, suggest a church. If it's a last resort file a lawsuit against them. A crazy person living in your neighborhood is an infringement of your right to pursue happiness. Don't wait until they go ballistic! Shake things up and make things happen. Liberty must be protected by the free, not by governmental fiat. Communities are responsible for their own.

Finally, it must be said that inevitably these individuals typically are underemployed and somewhat despaired. This only gets worst when the economy tanks. We all know that this happens more often in hard times. Again, we can never prevent it, but a thriving economy can minimize the damage. We simply must as a nation recognize that government intervention only kills economic activity. We must wrestle power away from the special people and take back our country and our free market. It will not completely prevent such atrocities, but it may just calm the souls of a few. And we must at all costs preserve our Liberty. That is what allows us to chastise our disturbed neighbor. That is what allows us to demand redress. That is what allows us to change our economic standing. That is what allows us to protect ourselves. And that my fellow countrymen could save many lives.