Newtown Tragedy a Call for Us All to Speak Up
Newtown Tragedy a Call for Us All to Speak Up
I, like all of you, am still processing the horrific events from last Friday in Connecticut. It made me ill to look at the pictures of those small children and imagine the savagery and derangement that would allow anyone to hurt them. It is incomprehensible to figure out the “why” to this tragedy. I respond to this event as a mother first and only later as a physician.
As a mother, I can only imagine the depths of sorrow those mothers and fathers are experiencing right now. Their loss is heart-wrenching and people all over the world feel a small portion of their pain. Of course, it makes me wonder about my own children’s safety. I am somewhat reassured by the security measures I know that all schools have and the likely tightening of those measures in the days and weeks to come. Yet, part of the reason this event is so traumatic is its very randomness. How can anyone predict let alone prevent such unfathomable evil? I am grateful for the tips my children’s school sent home that guide us in the conversations with our kids about what happened in Connecticut, especially as my patients will expect me to offer similar advice. At the end of it, though, I grieve for all the lives lost, I wonder what it means about the world in which my children live, and I appreciate the days I’ve been given with these precious lives.
As a physician, I look at what happened in Connecticut through a different lens — more a lens of responsibility as a physician and as a citizen. My healthcare system readily acknowledges the limited role physicians play in the overall health of their patients, citing statistics indicating that only about 15 percent to 20 percent of what we do as physicians contributes to a patient’s health. Other things like community and the psycho-socioeconomic conditions in which a patient lives end up playing a much larger role. My healthcare system shares this to encourage a focus on the health of not only our patients but the health of our community.
From a community health perspective, the events leading up to the Newtown school shooting involves multiple failures in our society. While it ultimately was the choice of one person to perpetrate such a heinous act, his circumstances radiate outwards, rippling through our entire country. We should not forget that he was able to create such devastation in a matter of minutes with a legally acquired weapon. I still haven’t heard a logical explanation for why anyone would need to own an assault rifle. I know there is a lot of debate about gun laws and regulations and what effect they would actually have. Yet, as a thinking person, I do not understand why we allow such destructive weapons to be freely owned.
I also think about the shooter’s mother. From the reports I read, she struggled privately to try to help her mentally ill son. I can imagine the challenges she faced because I face similar challenges trying to get my own patients appropriate mental health care. Our mental health system has been gutted. The fragile remains cannot support even a fraction of the mental health disease burden in this country.
I encourage you as parents, physicians, and citizens to grieve as you will but then to add your voice to the conversation about gun laws and mental health services that may have contributed to unspeakable horror.
Dave:
There is no correlation between gun ownership (including type of weapon) and gun violence. Ironically, schools are 'gun-free' zones - exactly where the most heinous of gun crimes are committed. Chicago (my home town) has some of the harshest restrictions on gun ownership in the nation - and one of the highest murder rates. Ditto Washington D.C. A recent publication (Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and some Domestic Evidence, Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser) lays to rest many of the gun-control myths.
The tragedy of last Friday in CT was manifestly evil. An emotional response to such an event is normal, but not a rational means for making policy decisions.
While I am not against gun ownership, I do not feel that the "average" home needs to have assault weapons on hand. A can understand a hand gun, for protection. Homes have rifles, for avid hunters - to me, this is acceptable (provided they are in a locked cabinet for the safety of children living in the home).
The mother of the shooter, if she was aware that her son had mental illness, then why did she have weapons out?: From the reports I have read, they were not locked up - they were easily accessible. Whether or not he lived at home with her, she should have had any and all weapons locked up.
There will, sadly, never be true gun control. Law abiding citizens must apply for a gun permit. They pay for it, and then they must wait for a criminal background check. Meanwhile, the "bad guys" out there seem to find a dark ally to make a purchase of such weapons. It's broken, along with many other things in this country.
I think, if law abiding citizens were permitted to carry their hand guns, mass shootings might not happen. From the shooting in the movie theater a year ago, to the mall shooting just a few weeks ago - if just one "good guy" had a gun - the multiple deaths may have been avoided. Of course, this hinges on the good guy shooter having good aim.
I still stand behind the statement that guns don't kill people. People kill people. Guns are just a means to murder. We can't outlaw them, any more than we can outlaw the knives that stab someone. Or a vehicle used with deadly force. Or a rope. The list goes on and on.
As a citizen, I am deeply saddened by the school shootings a week ago. I can't imagine the deep pain the parents and siblings feel. I also can not imagine the pain the families of the teachers and the principal are experiencing. Those teachers died heros, placing themselves in front of other children -right in harms way. I can only imagine their last thoughts. And that thought brings a tear to my eye.
I am not a religious person by any means, but God bless to all those who are hurting. I hope that your pain eases and someday you can be at peace. Your loved ones are with God, they are angels watching over you.
Peace to all,
Angela
Well said, all. This is such a complex issue. It's gratifying to read intelligent commentary for a change on the Internet.
Alan
I cannot agree more with what the 10-year-old sister of one of the Sandy Hook's victims wrote to President Obama:
"My name is Natalie Barden and I wanted to tell the president that only police officers and the military should get guns. If people want to do it as a sport then they could go to a shooting range and the guns would not be able to leave there."
And this is all I want as a mother of 2, a physician and a citizen from politicians and policy makers. Is it too much or too simplistic?
I agree with the above statement-"our mental health system has been gutted" I see the devastating effects and loss of lives in our community from the closing of a local psychiatric hospital, and feel the frustration of many families as they struggle to get mental health care for their children and teens. It takes six months and it's over an 1 1/2 hour drive to get to the nearest psychiatrist that takes these clients here in Georgia. It makes me nauseous. We treat our animals better than we treat mentally ill people. We all suffer from the fall-out.
C. Reinhardt M.D.
it is true this is a complex problem. Each discipline should do what they can to make a contribution. As much as access to mental health treatment may be a challenge ,especially to the lower socioeconomic class, miseducation and myths about mental illness are a deterring factor to treatment. In all the reports I have read, I have not heard about psychiatric treatment for the shooter as a child. It seems money would not have been the problem. We know that the average age for many of the psychiatric ilnesses is in early teenage years. what the mental heath care community needs to do is to colloborate with schools to educate parents in the lower grades. By the time one is in high school it may be late to "force" them to into treatmnt and if parents wait till their troubled children turn 18yrs , they have lost the battle legally to force them into treatment unless there is imminent danger.
Being complex in all realities of this situation is overwhelming. First of all, what would it do to our country to go around asking everyone to turn in their fire arms? That is not logical, because the ones who shouldn't have them will not give them up. The training in schools concerning bullying is good, it should be done in the homes but it isn't. Perhaps schools should go to early health training, including mental health Thus to make it more identifiable as well as remove the stigma and perhaps, and remove the environmental things that contribute to mental illness. It is not my desire to damage childern with gross pictures or threats, but to teach them to be responsible. And heaven help all of us from stirring from the Bible. Those who are different should always be treated with kindness and not bullied or provoked. It makes one wonder, if we all assumed that everyone had hand guns, if we would have respect for the immenent danger in being aggressive.
As an 'outsider" I cannot fathom your country's (the most powerful country in the world!) attitude towards weapons. Many states have recently upheld laws permitting citizens to carrying hidden hand guns in most places, including universities. One senator was seen on TV saying how this current tragedy could have been prevented if the teachers of that school had been issued assault rifles for emergencies. Many people worldwide associate this level of gun violence with third world nations, infected with terrorists, not a world leader in science and medicine. While the outside world is grieving with you, we are also thinking that you had better set your house in order.