Gun Bandaids

Bandaids! That’s all they are, those recommendations for preventing mass shootings: Background checks, banning assault weapons and big clips, more mental health services.

When will people learn that “guns don’t kill people — but people who are some combination of desperate, confused, lonely, alienated, bullied, unemployed, overwhelmed with financial problems, rejected, angry, no-future-in-sight.” It’s these people most likely to go on a crazed shooting spree — with any type of gun.

Background checks won’t screen these people out. Mental health services are too little, too late. Many past killers were not “clinically pathological.” Guns for killing will always be available.

So, where’s the culprit? Where’s the real solution? It’s in our dysfunctional economic system — where the horrendous imbalance of wealth and income have raised havoc with our nation’s well-being, creating some of the highest rates of crime, violence, and incarceration in the world.

In Nordic countries, the gap between rich and poor is smaller, where citizens are close-knit and supportive, enjoying health care, minimum wages (like $19 USD!), ample unemployment benefits, free college-level education, paid parental leave — where economies are still competitive, and where mass shootings are much less common!

Yup! We need more than Bandaids.

Vern Simula

Mt. Iron