Enough Really Is Enough but Will You Listen?

I am all for stopping gun violence - all violence, really. But what will your Universal Background checks actually do to prevent gun violence? What are you screening for?

Past violent criminal history (such as domestic violence)?

This is fine, but isn't it a bit late for us to be doing something? Doesn't this infer the person has already been violent, perhaps with a gun? I suppose it's better than nothing. Cannot we do better than wait for the first infraction?

Someone's likelihood to become violent?

We currently cannot screen people based on their likelihood to become violent. It's not possible and it's not ethical. And what criteria would you even use?

How about someone's use of a legal drug - alcohol?

This is one of the few areas where there is research to support that a person may become violent. I'm pretty sure most of the United States would balk at this option.

So I suppose you are going down the mental illness path, aren't you? I am so tired of this conversation. I feel like a broken record.

"Epidemiologic studies show that the large majority of people with serious mental illnesses are never violent" (Swanson et al, 2014).

People who commit these terrible shootings are not doing so because of a mental health diagnosis any more than they are doing so because they are human. I see the media armchair diagnosing because of stigma. I see Facebook friends use words like "sick" and "crazy" and "psychopath" to describe these villains. But these anecdotes don't make it true. And I'm tired of arguing and trying to educate you. All you are doing is demonizing people who are already struggling in the society you have made nearly impossible for them to survive.

• You are creating stigma and witch hunts for people who have real medical issues. 
• You are demonizing people who have insurmountable challenges - disabilities- which you have created for them by making society inaccessible and now dangerous to their well-being.
• You are blaming the disabled for the monsters that have been created by hate and political bigotry.
• You are blaming the less powerful for the demons that you have summoned by your indifference to violence as a means to settle scores between enemies. 
• You are the problem - not those with mental health issues.

Go screen that. 

And while your at it, get rid of your killing machines to which you so desperately cling to protect yourself from the villains that you have created.

I've had enough rhetoric.

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Mental illness and reduction of gun violence and suicide: bringing epidemiologic research to policy
Swanson, Jeffrey W. et al.
Annals of Epidemiology , Volume 25 , Issue 5 , 366 - 376