Is banning guns the answer to prevent the mass shootings we have been experiencing?

Here are some facts from dw.com, “Proponents of stricter gun regulations fear for their safety
in a country where there is an average of 88 guns per 100 people, according to the 2011 Small Arms Survey. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence estimates that around 114,994 people are shot each year in the US. This includes murders, assaults, accidents, police intervention, suicide attempts and suicides.” And “Opponents of regulatory arguments, however, also fear a loss of safety. They argue that restricting the right to bear arms would leave citizens unable to protect themselves in their daily lives or, in a worst-case scenario, from a government turned against the people.”

From Just Facts, “A 1994 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year.

According to the CDC, there were about 18,498 gun-related accidents that resulted in death or an emergency room visit during 2001 earliest year such data is available from the CDC). This is roughly 27 times lower than the CDC’s 1994 estimate for the number of times Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes.”

And from ProCon.org, “Gun control laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking laws-

Of 62 mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and 2012, 49 of the shooters used legally obtained guns. Collectively, 143 guns were possessed by the killers with about 75% obtained legally. John R. Lott, Jr., PhD, gun rights activist, stated, “The problem with such [gun control] laws is that they take away guns from law-abiding citizens, while would-be criminals ignore them.” According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics May 2013 report, 37.4% of state prison inmates who “used, carried, or possessed a firearm when they committed the crime for which they were serving a prison sentence” obtained the gun from a family member or friend. Despite Chicago’s ban on gun shops, shooting ranges, assault weapons, and high capacity magazines, in 2014 Chicago had 2,089 shooting victims including at least 390 murders. Approximately 50,000 guns were recovered by police in Chicago between 2001 and Mar. 2012. The guns came from all 50 states, and more than half came from outside of Illinois.”

Now that you have some of the facts (and I encourage you to look at the supplied links), I hope that you are seeing a pattern. That pattern is that ban gun ownership all you want and illegal guns will still be out their for the criminals to use. Plus it is a fact that gun ownership does prevent crime.

But, there is one component that everyone seems to leave out, mental health! Yes this is important in this discussion, for the state of mind for most if not all people who harm others is not something to be discounted. Now I will admit that if you google ‘mental health and guns’ you will see that the so called experts say that there is no real correlation between them. Well I say that those who have been doing these mass shootings are mentally unbalanced.

Take a look at the two shooters who did El Paso and Dayton. Both seem to me to have very big problems. White supremacy and a unreasonable fear of foreigners are signs to me that they both have mental health issues. Don’t try to tell me that this is normal behavior, for it is not.

So all you gun control advocates can ban all you want and the problem will not get better. The simplistic answers that many of our politicians are spouting sound good, but in reality they just do not work. It is time for a more well thought out plan that combines a multi-pronged approach, rather than a simplistic one.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike