Why Is April so Sad?

The old saying goes something like this. "In spring, a young man's fancy turns to love." Sadly, this doesn't seem to be true anymore. News in spring is filled with stories of gun violence. Just this weekend, there were reports of 21 people who were slaughtered by three men. Of course the anti-gun groups come out and say this is why guns should not be so easily accessible, but there is one group who is strangely silent; the mental health care providers.

We want to blame guns for the deaths of all these people this week. But as days pass, stories emerge about the lives of the men behind the triggers. They have lost jobs, are estranged from wives, family, they have irrational fears of losing rights and children. They are (were) clearly all suffering from some degree of mental illness.

The same can be said of the V Tech shooter. A woman who tutored him wrote a book and in it writes of her reports to the school administration of her concerns about the young man. Help didn't come to him in any meaningful way before he shot up a college campus.

The shooter at the NC nursing home must have been suffering from some degree of depression caused by the state of his marriage.

Obviously, I could go on. In my humble, highly unprofessional opinion, guns are not the problem. The people holding the guns are the problem. If you put a highly destructive tool in the hands of a mentally ill person, there is a chance that person will use that tool for bad things.

I am of the opinion that two of the incidents this past weekend could have been prevented. Two of the subjects involved in the shootings were wearing either bulletproof vests or body armor. I wonder where they got them Shouldn't this type of protective gear only be available to law enforcement? After all, deer and ducks rarely shoot back and hunting accidents don't seem to be too terribly common. Shouldn't someone, maybe the ATF, start looking into websites selling body armor and determine who is buying it?

I called Point Blank Body Armor to ask if they authorize sales outside of law enforcement. I am waiting for a call back. I looked on Ebay. There are currently 1349 items found when you search for body armor. Some of the listings are related to motorcycling or skate boarding. Who is buying the law enforcement type body armor?

Some of you may not buy my argument and may still want to blame the gun lobby. It's a powerful group and has done quite a lot to protect our 2nd Amendment rights. Now it's time for mental health advocacy groups to work just as hard to ensure that people suffering from serious mental illness get the help they need before they get guns and harm others and themselves.