I once had an experience so horrible I just wanted to run as far away from it as I could. I was on a subway platform when a man rolled down the stairs onto the platform and onto the tracks. I heard all of this, but did not see it only the sound of his tumble, the screams of onlookers and the oncoming train. They did manage to get the man off the tracks in time.
I had the same sensation when I saw the photograph of the Connecticut elementary school children fleeing the school in a line with arms on shoulders of each other. I said again I did not ever want to see that ever again. Hence my shout out to GET RID OF ALL GUNS, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
My wife and I have a Ying Yang relationship and so she added to my reasoning by saying that it is not enough, that we must address the underlying problem in our society that was causing these actions and that was that mentally ill people were going untreated in many instances.
And her thoughts were supported on two fronts. First health insurance companies have now reduced covered psychiatric visits from one hour down to a half hour.
Secondly, was my reading of Shooting Victoria by Paul Thomas Murphy where we learn that Queen Victoria was shot at or attacked seven or eight times and as far as I have read so far her assailants had all been mentally ill and untreated. So the British had our problem, which by the way included easy access to guns, in the 1800s. And like them most of our mass murderers of late have been mentally ill and untreated.
Today Britain has expansive health care and gun access is difficult and they have none of the gun madness we have. So we must pull ourselves out of this shooting mentality first and foremost by providing mental health care to all who need it starting today so that tomorrow the culture of violence ends.