mass shooting
Tue Oct 3 14:05:49 EDT 2017
Is this past weekend's mass shooting at a country-music festival in Las Vegas another indication that we need better mental-health care?
It's obviously another indication that we need changes to the availability of guns - 23 in the guy's hotel room, and another 19 in his home.
Just as not everyone should have children, not everyone should have guns. (Not everyone should have alcohol; I see the negative consequences of that in my home daily.) I don't know how we address this. Some things that are healthy, or, at least, not harmful, for most people are problems for a few - or problems for the many because of those few. Most people are OK with alcohol. Many people raise kids who turn out fine. (Or maybe the kids don't, but they're not causing trouble.) Many people are OK with guns.
But we can't/won't even make tobacco illegal, and using that has no positive outcomes for its consumers - lung cancer, emphysema, second-hand smoke, distracted drivers. This is not an industry that needs society's support, or even acceptance, and the farmers could grow other crops, crops that don't shorten lives. There's people starving on this planet; we don't need tobacco.
And people do need access to mental-health care; just as much as physical-health care.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/922729.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
Is this past weekend's mass shooting at a country-music festival in Las Vegas another indication that we need better mental-health care?
It's obviously another indication that we need changes to the availability of guns - 23 in the guy's hotel room, and another 19 in his home.
Just as not everyone should have children, not everyone should have guns. (Not everyone should have alcohol; I see the negative consequences of that in my home daily.) I don't know how we address this. Some things that are healthy, or, at least, not harmful, for most people are problems for a few - or problems for the many because of those few. Most people are OK with alcohol. Many people raise kids who turn out fine. (Or maybe the kids don't, but they're not causing trouble.) Many people are OK with guns.
But we can't/won't even make tobacco illegal, and using that has no positive outcomes for its consumers - lung cancer, emphysema, second-hand smoke, distracted drivers. This is not an industry that needs society's support, or even acceptance, and the farmers could grow other crops, crops that don't shorten lives. There's people starving on this planet; we don't need tobacco.
And people do need access to mental-health care; just as much as physical-health care.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/922729.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]