President Obama at a press conference today spoke of charging Joe Biden with the task of coming up with a plan for more gun control in the US by January, presumably the end of January. Hearing this was music to my ears, and I am sure music to the ears of those who have lost loved ones in these atrocious massacres in the US of late.
But how far will these reforms go?
Yes, it would be a huge step forward to see more stringent background checks being done before anyone is allowed to purchase a gun in the US in future.
Yes it would be a huge step forward to look at ensuring that no mentally ill person gains access to a gun in the US, given that Lanza and no doubt those who committed a massacre elsewhere in the US of late, had some sort of mental illness which probably fuelled their rampages.
Yes it would be a huge step forward to see a ban on the ownership of semi-automatic rifles and any other military style guns in the US.
Yes it would be a huge step forward to see a ban on the sale or availability of magazines with more than 10 bullets in, in the US.
But what about the people who already own these military style semi-automatic rifles and any other similar armoury?
What about those who have a stockpile of magazines containing 100 bullets?
People have been rushing out to buy AR15's and magazines of 100 bullets since the Sandy Hook shooting as well as other guns, according to the TV News. So what about these people and what they have just bought?
What about those who already possess guns and large magazines, and who have never been background checked?
What about those who own guns and have a mentally ill person residing with them, and who might have easy access to their weapons and magazines?
What about those who currently own guns and have not got them locked away in police approved gun cabinets which stop access to these things by any unbalanced people who have access to their home, such as drug addicts or people ,like Lanza?
It is one thing to push for gun law reform and to pass a bill or motion to put this into action in order to ensure that anyone in future purchasing guns are properly checked and stopped from buying large magazines of bullets or military style semi-automatic killing machines, but what about those who already own these and large magazines?
I sincerely hope that President Obama and Joe Biden will do something to ensure that those already owning military style rifles and large magazines and who have not been subject to the proper background checks, will be made ti surrender their military style rifles, large magazines of bullets and be put through very stringent background checks, leading to the seizure of their armoury if they fail these checks or are not keeping their armoury under lock and key away from any unstable or mentally ill people around them. Failure to do this would not be doing enough to prevent another such massacre.
Mental health reforms are important also, and it would appear that not enough is on offer to support families with mentally ill members of their family, as in the Lanza case.
I cannot see any overnight solution to the issues of mental health, it will take a long time to produce a better support network and of course health care of any kind must be paid for by the family, unlike in the UK where all health care is available in the National Health Service for a nominal payment of a national insurance contribution every week, by every member of the UK public, irrespective of whether they subscribe to a private health care plan or not.
Perhaps if mental health care was subsidized by the US government or by a similar scheme to that in place in the UK, or better covered by medical or health insurance in the US, this would make access to this sort of health care easier, which in turn may lead to less of these incidents perpetrated by mentally ill people?
The stigma attached to mental illness may be another cause of families not seeking mental health care for loved ones, and once it goes on someone's medical records that they have suffered from a mental illness, even if just depression or anxiety, it becomes so much harder to obtain health insurance, life insurance or work, other than for loaded policies or employment where mentally ill people get exploited as cheap labour, this is the case in the UK.
Efforts to de-stigmatize mental illness would go a long way toward helping this hideous predicament for families of the mentally ill and the mentally ill themselves.
Mental institutions have become a thing of the past, many such places long since closed down, though some remain in the UK and are utilized by the prison service, to house people who are convicted of crimes, which were committed when a person was diagnosed with a mental illness, like psychotic murderers or Schizophrenic people who rape, maime or murder.
So many mentally ill people suffered appalling abuse in mental hospitals and institutions, as revealed by the recent Jimmy Saville case in the UK, where the celebrity Jimmy Saville was found to have sexually abused mentally ill inmates in Broadmoor hospital in the UK. Jimmy Saville was mentally ill himself, and yet he was allowed to have keys to the hospital and living quarters there, to come and go as he please and yet he had no training in mental health care or nursing. He was not a qualified psychologist or psychiatrist either.
Mentally ill people are very vulnerable members of society but also very dangerous and even more so with a gun in their hands, and the drugs prescribed to these people only make them far worse over a period of time, given the adverse reactions to these drugs and the tendency to a co-dependency to them, which any lapse in only serves to increase the danger and threat which they pose.
Having said this, anyone can snap, we all get stressed out, we all endure periods of anxiety and worry, and for those who feel suicidal and alone in their anxiety, a handy gun is far too much of a temptation to self harm or harm others for attention in some sad and pathetic cry for help.
According to recent news reports, Lanza clearly snapped when he suspected that his mother was going to have him committed, perhaps he damaged the computers at home in a bid to stop his mother emailing places where she could incarcerate him?
Lanza perceived that his mother thought more of the children in the Sandy Hook School than of him, and so he stole his mothers guns and after killing his mother he went on to kill 20 children and six of their teachers at the Sandy Hook School. It must have been so easy to grab his mother's guns and go and kill these poor souls, they must not have been locked away in a secure gun cabinet, as indeed they should have been by law, in line with the gun laws here in the UK.
Reform needs to go as far as looking at those who may well be prevailing in the same situation as Lanza and his mother. How many gun owners in the US are living with mentally ill members of their families, or drug abusers, alcoholics or severely depressed people, and with guns and magazines of bullets left lying around the house just serving to invite a repeat of the recent massacres in the US?
The sooner these issues are addressed and acted upon the better, otherwise the Sandy Hook incident will by no means be the last of its kind to occur in the USA.
The act of removing dangerous weapons from out of harm's way is as important as reforming the gun laws so that future purchases of guns is more stringent and subject to more rigorous background checks. It is not just about those applying for gun licenses or possessing them, it is about those they live with or give easy or ready access to their homes to, who may be unbalanced or mentally ill.
Publishing more widely the warning signs of mental illnesses might also help, so that people can identify potential future killers in their midst.
Prevention IS ALWAYS better than cure.
Better safe than sorry!