Let's control the maniacs

Insane Asylum, Jacksonville IL - 1901

First, we must agree to set political correctness aside. It is a scourge that inhibits critical thought and open, honest debate. After the enormous evil visited upon Sandy Hook Elementary School, political correctness will not serve us well. We must be brutally honest with ourselves.

Our culture has changed – there is no denying it.

And the statistics are very odd. David Kopel, writing in theWall Street Journal on 12/18/12, cites a University of Alabama analysis of a New York Police Department study of “active shooters.” While the nation’s overall homicide rate has dropped by over half since 1980, the number of mass shootings has increased markedly: 18 incidents in the 1980s, 54 in the 1990s, and 87 in the 2000s. Let that sink in – we are far safer overall than we were in the 1980s, but the number of high profile, media-splashed, mass shootings has increased markedly.

How are we going to address this problem? We must start by recognizing what has happened to us.

Coarsening of culture

The  violence in movies, video games, rap videos, etc, is so commonplace as to become acceptable, even normal. Each successive movie seems bent on exceeding the visceral impact of its predecessors. Is it any accident that James Holmes, the shooter in Aurora, Colorado, dyed his hair red and told arresting officers that he was “The Joker?”

Copycat acts fueled by the 24x7 news-hungry media

It seems that many of these shooters are driven by a need for recognition. A man was stopped by the Maine State Police in July with clippings of the aforementioned Aurora Batman massacre. He had just seen the Batman movie, was heavily armed, and was on his way to New York where he planned to kill his former boss.

Shutdown of mental hospitals

As far back as October 30, 1984, the New York Times recognized that we had a serious problem. In an article titled “How Release of Mental Patients Began”, the Times laments “The policy that led to the release of most of the nation's mentally ill patients from the hospital to the community is now widely regarded as a major failure.” The politicians’ zeal to close mental intuitions was supported by the theory that mental illness could be chemically managed. (And at a far lower cost – that was the attraction). Only problem was, it wasn’t working.

Another scary statistic – fully half of the active shooters mentioned above were proved mentally defective. How many of the remainder had mental problems as well? Is it an accident that young, white, socially maladjusted males make up the majority of the shooters?

Ejection of Christianity from the public square

In an apparent misreading of the First Amendment, thinking that we were guaranteed “freedom from religion”, liberals have rushed to eliminate religious influences from the public square. Moral relativism, preached by secular humanists, claims that Christian values are in no way superior to, say, the Taliban interpretation of Sharia law that justifies the subjugation, beating, and shooting of women who do not submit.

We have created a void of values which, in the face of the other cultural influences above, is very dangerous.

Imaginary ”gun free zones”

Hold firm to your grip on the pledge to avoid political correctness. This one is tough. Almost all of the mass shootings studied by the New York Police Department occurred in imaginary gun free zones. An actual gun free zone requires metal detectors and armed guards to enforce it – witness our airports since 9/11. An imaginary gun free zone is declared by government fiat or corporate policy, but is not enforced. Prime examples are shopping malls, movie theaters, schools, and post offices.

The characteristic of imaginary gun free zones is that law abiding citizens obey the rules while criminals, maniacs, and other evildoers do not. This creates all the conditions required for a massacre – defenseless citizens become the prey of armed perpetrators. As good as our first responders are, they just can’t get there in time.

How can we proceed?

So what are we to do? The prescription seems obvious. We need a renewal of ethical values to counteract the inevitable coarsening of culture. Whether these values are religion-based or not, they must abhor the taking of life and be inculcated early into our young.

We need to be judicious in how early and often our youth are exposed to violence in the media and on the internet. A tough problem, but one that deserves serious debate. Hollywood will push back vigorously.

We need to readdress the availability of mental health services and long term institutionalization of the violently insane. It is crazy that anyone, even with no insurance, can get treatment for a broken leg, but parents with a disturbed teenager have few options.

Where gun free zones are desired, we must create actual ones, not just imaginary. Metal detectors and armed guards are required to do so. If a government agency or corporation requires you to give up your means of defense, then it becomes responsible for defending you.

And we must look to our politicians to lead. Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, in his foolish eagerness to banish Christmas, and hence Christ and Christian values, from the public square, is not part of the solution. Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, in his equally unwise bid to eliminate long-term psychiatric beds, is likewise part of the problem.

This is not an easy problem to solve. And focusing on guns alone is a dangerous red herring. These young perpetrators are crazy but not stupid – there are many other ways to wreak havoc. The root cause must be addressed – maniac control.