Personal thoughts on recent events in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio
Posted By RichC on August 7, 2019
Way too often our citizens in cities and communities across the country suffer at the hands of criminals and most notably disturbed individuals in our society. The topic rises to the top of the political news when there is a mass-killing and the weapon is a semi-automatic firearm and the target are ordinary people living their daily lives. This past weekend there were two such attacks, one in El Paso, Texas and one in Dayton, Ohio (my backyard, so to speak). 
The similarity was that of senseless hate from a disturbed person and their weapon of choice. Unlike what is reported in the news, neither individual fits the cookie-cutter political right or political left normal American; to associate them is just plain wrong and harmful to our nation.
There are elected leaders who would like to find reasonable constitutional solutions and others who just can’t help but use these tragedies as a political tool in order to garner support or attack the current occupant of the Whitehouse. For some reason the every day killings in the gun restricted, Democrat controlled city of Chicago never seems to matter or be their focus? Those on the political left only work to gin up anti-gun support for “their side” in wanting to “fundamentally transform America” and ignore looking at underlying reasons an angry young males decide to kill others. It is not all about the gun.
OPINION:
Personally I think the issues is far more complex. Likely the reason the problem has become so big in recent decades, is like due to a change in the moral fabric of our country. We no longer respect authority (police, teachers, parents, bosses, etc) and the family unit has crumbled – 
fathers are no longer in many homes or being dads. Add to that the complete lack of any religious upbringing, be in God in any faith or teaching the Bible in our communities as we have in the United States from our foundation. The obvious outcome is little understanding of right and wrong or the consequences for the later. The “go easy on crime” mentality is now the norm for both political parties … and with that, there is little surprise we see more disrespect, violence and crime. The latest trend is to decriminalize drugs, taunt police (dump water on them) or respect for our country’ border. TV, movies, social media and video games with violence are all pumped into our kids from an early age … some kids (and adults) do not separate “entertainment” from reality (Are today’s “games” too real – I’m comparing and thinking about growing up playing “Cowboys and Indians” or pretending we were at war, shooting each other with toy guns or sticks?) Add to that the lack of appropriate care for the mentally ill or those on the edge (most committing this mass-shooting show signs), and we’re bound to get a few using whatever weapon they learn can commit the most heinous act (and we have way too many highly publicized examples of what to use … and plenty available legally and illegally in the US).
Now, coming from the political right who believes in the Second Amendment, I’m not saying that all our current gun laws are appropriate, but just banning guns and making them illegal for law-abiding citizens is not the solution either.
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