Reforming gun control is essential

The impression that this leaves on the average person is remarkably different from other mass shootings in the United States: this involved a new level of innocence and a new tier of destruction that had not been experienced in this manner.

Why was this preventable? While gun control could have easily prevented this from happening, the bigger issue is the fragmented and greatly flawed mental health system in the United States. The only more powerful stigma than dealing with guns in any meaningful manner is the stigma attributed of living with mental health issues in North America.

Federal regulations of the retail sale of guns are the weakest in the industrialized world, there is little to no accountability to those who sell firearms due to loopholes and a lack of teeth to legislation. The logical first step is the elimination of the legality of high capacity magazines and assault rifles. The defence of these by hunters as necessary for shooting deer is simply disingenuous and unrealistic.

Just because you have a right to own firearms does not mean you should have the right to own a killing machine with a laser sight that shoots 150 rounds a minute. These kind of weapons were designed for war and killing people, not hunting.

Stopping criminals and underage youth from buying guns is important, but this does not stop someone with documented or undocumented mental illness from purchasing or gaining access to firearms (this is not to compare those living with mental illness to criminals).

Putting teeth in the regulations of firearm sales and possession to mandate necessary psychological testing to purchase handguns would be an important step to reform. You have to provide a police check and are typically interviewed for certain types of jobs, why shouldn’t an even higher level of responsibility be required to possess firearms? If you can prove you have a clean bill of mental health, you should be granted the purchase of a firearm. This is not meant to bolster the stigma against mental illness in North America, but rather is a practical public policy method.

But critics would note the killer’s mother was the legal owner of the firearms. Indeed she was, but reforms should extend to this as well. If you have dependents suffering from mental illness, your gun possession rights should be restricted. If you cannot understand the irresponsibility of owning multiple pistols and assault rifles while sharing a house with somebody diagnosed with a mental illness with violent implications, there should be safeguards in place to prevent this from happening.

The diagnosis of mental illness and living with it is a totally different beast though. In a country with skyrocketing prices for medical and clinical aid, access to diagnosis and the resources to deal with mental illness fall by the wayside every passing day. Millions live with personality disorders and the more extreme schizophrenia and sociopathic behaviour, which many live undiagnosed with every year.

Typically, they are more at risk to themselves than others, but the exceptions can result in tragedy. True, there are many cases of mass murders being committed by people who are simply loners, socially isolated and angry towards the world. But many would consider this form of depression to be just as important to diagnose.

However, simple mental screening methods could potentially identify people at a higher risk of violence and not leave people applying hindsight judgments that they should have noticed the behaviours. Mental illness is not just confined to thoughts, the issue of chemical imbalances is also key to conceptualizing this. Too much testosterone is anything but a good thing for the male mind.