The Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting
has raised issues about gun control, mental health and is sure keep on raising
these issues. Listening to the gun
debate, I have been wondering why people believe that disarming America is the
answer to school shootings and gun violence.
This afternoon, I got a call from
my friend Ron Kirkish, a trusted advisor on drug policy who often inspires me
to follow my instincts. We spoke at
length about the conversation that is taking place in America right now and how
banning assault weapons has become a necessity, once again. At the same time I was also reminded that the
gun issue is an issue more familiar to me than I care to recall at times.
My father (Fred A. Datig) who passed away last year
after he lost his battle with cancer, was in the international arms trade. He was also a world class authority on
identifying bullets and firearms from various wars and wrote many technical
books about guns, still in circulation today.
The house I grew up in was three stories with a large basement and guns
were everywhere. We even had disarmed bombs and canons at our house. My parents were never
at PTA meetings, partied all the time and we never went to church as a family. My father did not believe in God and had a
serious drinking and smoking problem. Looking
back at how I turned out in my teens and twenties, one could easily say that my parents made
a lot of mistakes when it came to raising me. And even though I was
not raised in a nurturing environment, was exposed to alcoholic rage and guns continuously,
the one thing my parents did do right, is they made clear to me that there would
be consequences beyond anything I could imagine if I ever touched one of the
guns in our house. In all the years I
lived in that house and with all the guns that were brought in and out of that
house, I never once touched a gun.
Americans are quick to believe that
taking guns away from Americans who have a constitutional right to own them, is
somehow going to solve the problem we have with gun violence. I should also mention that while I am an
American by birth, I was raised in Switzerland, in a town that had less than 1%
crime rate, where everyone had a gun and men had to serve in the military every
year until they were retired.
But in this day and age, there is a lot of brainwashing going on and there is no question in my mind,
that we are living in dangerous times where we are being influenced by
progressives and liberals who are asking us to abandon everything America
stands for, disarm America, legalize drugs and censor the truth of what
would happen to our society if these things really came to fruition.
There is also the debate on mental
health, another topic close to my heart.
The mental health establishment has been looking to diagnosis and drugs
in order to treat people’s mental ailments.
To diagnose someone today is much easier than it was sixty years ago,
when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders had 40 ailments, considered to be serious mental disorders.
Today, these disorders have gone beyond 4,000 and counting. Assessment models to identify these ailments
are limited and plain. But if there’s one thing we can count on, it is that
there is a drug for every disorder and horrific side affects to go along with it. To top it all off, we live in a
society where we label those we don’t understand and view them as a subculture,
out-casting and pushing them away from mainstream popularity.
If there is one piece of advice I would give to Americans, it would be if
you own a gun, be trained in how you should use it and know the laws that apply
to you as a gun owner. Don’t leave it in
your house, leave it at your shooting range or gun club.
That should also include your ammo.
The reasons for this is lead exposure. A change I would like to see legislators make are stricter
laws against parents whose children end up playing with their guns or God
forbid worse.
If you need to have a gun in your
house, lock it in a secure place, where it is out of sight. If you have kids, tell them first that you
love them and hug them often but if they touch your gun they will face serious
consequences such as being grounded.
In my opinion, if you are not going
to respect what your gun represents, you should not use it, nor should you have
a gun. A gun is for protection and for
placing intruders on notice. Chances are, if you understand what your gun represents, you will never understand what
it means to shoot somebody in anger, but rather in self-defense as a last
resort - if at all.
Let’s keep America strong and let it’s Constitution bring us the
freedom and liberty we love. Be it guns, mental health or drug
abuse, Education will make America strong. When we understand the
facts, we will understand our impulses.
God bless the people of Newtown Connecticut and God bless America.
