Another week, another group of Americans murdered by a madman with an assault rifle. Another win for the National Rifle Association.
It's been barely a month since the Las Vegas massacre. This time it's 26 people at a church in Texas. And for once on Sunday the madman in the oval office, was right...rightish anyway.
"We have a lot of mental health problems in our country..." was the response of the man with the spray on tan. Hard to believe, but he's right.
His election is all the proof many of us need that our country has serious mental health issues. While his voters are well aware that liberalism is a mental health issue, the statement could clue them in that liberals aren't be the only wackos in our midst.
Like the ones who think it's a good idea to let people buy assault rifles with nothing but $500 and an ID at Wally World. Or the ones who think concealed carry is just exactly What Jesus Would Do behind the pulpit.
I'm pretty sure pulpits weren't bulletproof in Jesus day.
The question becomes, if mental health is really the driving force behind so many mass shootings in this country, what do we do? There are countries who are nearly as armed to the teeth as we are. Like our northern neighbors, Canada. What about them?
How can they have just as many per capita guns, but none of the mass murders? It might be because Canada has mandatory gun licensing for public and private sales, 60 day waiting periods, limited magazine sizes for rifles and handguns, and extreme limits on automatic and semi-automatic weapons.
Certainly those simple guildelines would help in our case. But there's more, like actual databases and laws prohibiting people with mental illness or domestic abusers from acquiring guns.
There is one constant among countries with an armed citizenry close to ours without the murder and mayhem we experience. That constant is some form of universal healthcare for it's citizens.
If every American had equal access to healthcare, including mental health, problems would be identified and diagnosed at a young age, when they can be more easily remedied. But we don't, and most Americans with mental health issues are untreated.
If we had a national healthcare program not built on making insurance company shareholders rich, those with a propensity to grab a machine gun and take out a church might be helped. Some might be institutionalized. There's been plenty of room since Ronnie Raygun emptied them all in the 80s.
The murderer in Texas showed every sign of serious mental health problems. In a country with universal healthcare, he would have been identified early in school and appropriate medical intervention could have taken place, long before he became the military's problem.
While lawmakes and the madman in the White House do all they can to overturn the ACA, the citizens of a very Republican state, Maine, just voted overwhelmingly to extend Medicaid coverage in the state. They obviously get it.
I'm for banning assault rifles as a short term fix. But the real longterm fix for our gun problem is healthcare for all Americans.