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Guns and Mental Illness

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  • Guns and Mental Illness

    What is to blame when evil strikes?

    The link can be found here.

    ----

    What is really responsible when a mass murder takes place? Let's plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

    Many of us spent our Valentine's Day celebrating time with that special someone in our lives. I managed to use Amazon credit to get my Princess several gifts and we went out to dinner together at a nearby Subway. Our day was special and we shouldn't deny that, but there were plenty of people that didn't have a special day.

    Some girlfriends never got to have that evening date with their boyfriends and vice-versa. At least one teacher was killed and if he was married, he didn't get to spent Valentine's with his wife. Several parents might have had to cancel plans because they suddenly had to go and identify the bodies of their children they never expected to lose.

    And for many of these people, Valentine's Day might never be a day of happiness again.

    If there is one word that could be used to describe what happened, it is evil. This isn't a post though about the problem of evil. Plenty has been said about that and often by people much more equipped than me. This is about another topic in relation to it.

    One of the first things I noticed in listening to the news is that it was immediately said that this shooter (Let's not mention his name people. The victims were people worth knowing about, but not this guy) was mentally ill. Perhaps he was. I do not know for sure, but usually, that seems to be the first assumption. There had to be a mental illness.

    The problem is this is said before any facts are known and second, it paints with too broad a brush. I called in to a local radio show yesterday to talk about this and the host did agree with me. My wife and I both have Aspergers. She also has PTSD and bipolar and hallucinations, but we are not the kinds to go shooting up a school.*

    Technically, we each have a mental illness, but we're both functioning members of society. The problem is mental illness is way too vague. Consider if I told you that many people die of physical illness. That is true. Cancer and various diseases are physical illnesses. Does that mean when you have someone who has the common cold you're going to have a prayer vigil around their bed to make sure they don't die of the disease?

    It's also false to just assume someone has a mental illness and that was the cause of their behavior. After all, that would have to be it. Right? I mean, surely a person in their right mind would not do something like this?

    People in their right minds do things like this. Why? Because people are sinners. We all have some evil in us. Some of us just don't do anything to stop what we have. Some of us seem to relish it and celebrate it. If that's the case, it will take more than just medication. The reality is if someone is bent on doing evil, they will do evil, and no amount of laws will stop that.*

    For those of us in the mental health community unfortunately*we are all painted with this broad brush when the term is thrown out there without any explanation. People have honestly thought before my wife and I could be threats because of Aspergers. Not only that, but then you ask people to encourage and support those with mental health issues and who could they be thinking about? Those people that they see on TV who shoot up schools.

    Could it be that the actual problem is that word that no one wants to use? Could it be that sin is the problem? Of course, the media doesn't like to use the word sin. We don't like to admit that some things could be wrong often because that could get into our personal lives.*

    Some things are evil though. Sometimes, it's we who are evil. It's not an imbalance in the brain. It's one in the heart.

    If someone is mentally unstable enough to kill someone, which can happen, we do need to deal with that, but we also don't need to just assume it was some mental condition and if the person's brain was in right order, this would never happen. We all do wrong things and it would be so nice to always blame it on brain chemistry, but it doesn't work. We know it. We are responsible. We bear the blame.

    Pray for the people left behind by this tragedy and especially for the families of those who have lost loved ones and yes, even for the person who committed this vile act that they will find forgiveness in Christ.

    In Christ,
    Nick Peters

  • #2
    Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post


    One of the first things I noticed in listening to the news is that it was immediately said that this shooter (Let's not mention his name people. The victims were people worth knowing about, but not this guy) was mentally ill. Perhaps he was. I do not know for sure, but usually, that seems to be the first assumption. There had to be a mental illness.
    The Herostratus treatment is one I've favored since Columbine. We should not give these people the attention or notoriety they crave. And I don't like calling them mentally ill when what they did is evil pure and simple.

    I'm always still in trouble again

    "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
    "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
    "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

    Comment


    • #3
      Politicians are not actually interested in solving the problem. They just use the situation to further their own agendas against guns.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post
        Technically, we each have a mental illness, but we're both functioning members of society. The problem is mental illness is way too vague. Consider if I told you that many people die of physical illness.
        I do not know about "technically" but I do not see Aspergers as mental illness. It is not something that you get, it is inborn I believe. My grandson has Aspergers and while that impairs him to a significant degree he is clearly functional. Perhaps a disability? I don't know, but not mental illness whatever the "experts" may say.
        Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Sparko View Post
          Politicians are not actually interested in solving the problem. They just use the situation to further their own agendas against guns.
          Why do you think they have an "agenda against guns" other than for "solving the problem"? That claim makes no sense to me.

          I suggest it's worth you watching this 6-minute youtube clip, where John Oliver talks to people in Australia about the situation there. One of the takeaways is that the politicians in Australia saw that implementing gun control would be an election loser but did it anyway because they wanted to make their country safer. The conservative party there that was in government upset their own base by enacting gun control rapidly after a massacre.

          (contains a couple of swear-words)
          "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
          "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
          "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

          Comment


          • #6
            The daily show. on the comedy channel?

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Sparko View Post
              The daily show. on the comedy channel?
              Above your intelligence level, true. But if you try really hard you might understand some of the bigger words with the help of a dictionary.
              "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
              "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
              "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                Above your intelligence level, true. But if you try really hard you might understand some of the bigger words with the help of a dictionary.
                You might try using a source other than a liberal comedian if you want people to take you seriously.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                  You might try using a source other than a liberal comedian if you want people to take you seriously.
                  You're not a serious person, so you wouldn't take it seriously no matter what.
                  "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
                  "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
                  "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                    You're not a serious person, so you wouldn't take it seriously no matter what.
                    Don’t worry, the laughing you hear is everyone laughing at you. Sorry, but killers simply switched to other methods or kept their guns while lawful citizens gave up there’s.
                    "The man from the yacht thought he was the first to find England; I thought I was the first to find Europe. I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."
                    GK Chesterton; Orthodoxy

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                      Why do you think they have an "agenda against guns" other than for "solving the problem"? That claim makes no sense to me.

                      I suggest it's worth you watching this 6-minute youtube clip, where John Oliver talks to people in Australia about the situation there. One of the takeaways is that the politicians in Australia saw that implementing gun control would be an election loser but did it anyway because they wanted to make their country safer. The conservative party there that was in government upset their own base by enacting gun control rapidly after a massacre.

                      (contains a couple of swear-words)
                      Government ignoring the will of those they represent and doing what they want anyway. What could possibility go wrong?
                      "The man from the yacht thought he was the first to find England; I thought I was the first to find Europe. I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."
                      GK Chesterton; Orthodoxy

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                        You're not a serious person, so you wouldn't take it seriously no matter what.
                        Probably.

                        Comment

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