It's That Easy

While watching All In With Chris Hayes the night he had the clip of the scruffy guys with guns shooting up a female mannequin while sniggering through the whole thing because they didn’t like the women from the organization Moms Demand Action for Sensible Gun Laws, or Moms Demand Action for short, I immediately went to the website: www.momsdemandaction.org and signed my name as a supporter.

 

And then after the horrible tragedy in Santa Barbara this past week a small group of us decided to take action and affiliate with Moms Demand Action here in our county.  We have received much help from the Moms group, and have been promised more.  And we have received much support via Facebook

 

With that being said, the following are the thoughts I have had regarding the 2^nd Amendment, gun violence, and mental illness.  First off, I carefully read the 2^nd Amendment again, and I was struck by the fact that the first four words are, “A well-regulated militia…”  Because of the tremendous pressure put on Federal legislators by the NRA, which is funded now by the gun manufacturers, we do not have a “well-regulated militia” we have unregulated vigilante individuals and groups who are not in place to insure the “…security of a free State…” but instead are terrorizing our homes, neighborhoods and schools with their completely irresponsible behaviors.  The NRA should go back to doing what it started out doing, and that is teaching gun safety and responsibility.  Frankly, as it is now, in my opinion, it should be listed as a terrorist organization.

 

The second half of this equation, however, is the status of our mental health system, or lack thereof, in our county, state and with the Federal government.  I was elected to office in 1999, which wasn’t all that long ago.  One of my fellow Supervisors commented to me when he assigned me to be on our Mental Health Board (now called Behavioral Health) that, “We probably don’t even need this.  People should just pull themselves together and get on with it.”  Since I had members of my own family who were battling mental illness, this comment didn’t sit well.

 

People who exhibit at-risk behavior which may indicate they are perhaps a danger to themselves or to others deserve, as human beings, the care and services they need.  This is where our priorities must be as well.  At this time there are many bills before our State legislature regarding both gun safety legislation as well as mental health issues, and this is very hopeful. 

 

As citizens, we need to keep up the pressure.  With those of us who still have busy lives, one way of doing this through computers, is to go to: www.momsdemandaction.org and sign up to support sensible guns laws.  It’s that easy.