NEWTOWN: Thoughts...

Our brains are very powerful organs. When healthy, they can be responsible for so much good in the world, when sick they can lead to unspeakable acts against humanity.

The Newtown massacre was such an unspeakable act that our own brains tried to shield us from an unfathomable reality by blocking our ability to even process what has happened.

There for a while, my wife and I talked about turning off the TV as the images and information became too much to bear.

My grandson Ben is 6 and the thought of him being in a similar situation is not permitted by my brain as a protective measure.

After each gun tragedy, the talk of gun regulation is brought up but there is no easy answer here because ultimately we cannot in reality ban all guns as evidenced by countries that have tried to. The newer argument about guns is that if more people carried them, maybe we could prevent some of these gun tragedies.

I do not have an answer but I do know that there are some things that could be done to minimize this problem.

One is to require extensive background checks on individuals that want to purchase weapons especially in cases of mental illness or instability. This is probably impossible because one would need a mental health data base where each individual being treated for mental instability would be registered…like a sex offender listing.

Another, more doable step, is to ban all “assault” weapons and all large ammo clips. Assault weapons are really only adult toys macho men need to satisfy their combat fantasies.

Protecting one’s home and family is of paramount importance but you don’t need a 50 caliber machine gun to do that.

Here in Michigan, our legislature just passed a law allowing people to carry concealed weapons even in where weapons were banned such as schools and stadiums. To get permission to carry a CW, one would have to undergo extensive training in the safe use of these weapons…our governor has not yet signed the law but said he would review the law’s implications in light of the Newtown tragedy.

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