Study reasons behind U.S. mass shootings
Mental illness is a worldwide phenomenon. Shooting sprees like America’s rarely, if ever, happen in other developed countries. Shouldn’t we ask why not? According to the Gun Violence Archive, excluding suicides, 13,286 people were killed in America by firearms in 2015 and 26,819 were injured. In any other category but firearms, these numbers would be identified for what they are: an epidemic. Any other public health issue that took so many lives would be carefully studied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) so that answers could be found and action taken to fix the problem. Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion The CDC analyzes things that cause public harm. Why can’t we study the issue of gun assaults on innocent human beings? People who are shot suffer at least as much as those who are afflicted by the flu or heart disease or any one of many other ailments.But our representatives, whose job is partly about public health and safety, actually defunded CDC gun research back in 1996 because of shakedown threats from the NRA. Only fools or cowards or criminals would prohibit research on such a grave and pervasive problem. Many of our trembling legislators are so fearful of losing their jobs they still bow to NRA pressure to nurture doubt and forbid funding to analyze the plentiful data and discover a dispassionate fix for the problem.Instead, they dutifully parrot old NRA propaganda slogans such as “There are already too many guns out there so we can’t do anything about them,” or “Only the crooks will have guns.” It’s long past time to renounce such defeatist, barroom excuses for doing nothing and demand objective, research-based answers about what role our current gun laws play in public safety.Now that our once-safe schools and public places have become potential killing fields, it’s time we made America great again. Let’s find out exactly why the shooting of innocents is so possible and so frequent in our land.DAVID LAMBERTNiskayunaMore from The Daily Gazette:Niskayuna girls’ cross country wins over BethlehemEDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidationPuccioni’s two goals help Niskayuna boys’ soccer top Shaker, remain perfectEDITORIAL: Urgent: Today is the last day to complete the censusFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen?