Time for an Adult Conversation

New Year's Eve has historically been enjoyed as an evening of celebration and joy for Americans for as long as I can remember. December 31, 2024, will unfortunately be remembered for the tragedy which occurred in New Orleans. 

Like many of you, I would wake up on that Wednesday morning and become aware of the heinous act that occurred on New Year’s Day morning. I find no reason to ever utter the name of the person who carried out that horrific act of violence. Mentioning that person’s name might only provide that individual with the notoriety he may have been seeking and I, for one, will not be part of providing him with that end result. 

I am not sure why certain elements of our society have resorted to these violent acts of what I can only refer to as terrorism within our nation and elsewhere. The senseless murder of the United Health Care executive on a  New York City street last month, the recent murder of a Charlotte County Deputy earlier last month, and the horrible torching of an innocent homeless person on a  New York City Subway recently are but a few of the terrible tragedies I speak of. 

This year alone there have been 83 school shootings in the United States with 56 of those on K-12 campuses and the remainder at colleges. Having said that, I recall my high school years when young men and yes young women would participate in Hunter Safety Courses. We would bring our firearms to school for the courses being held after the close of school when a program being taught by a school faculty member would result in the receipt of a certificate to those successfully completing the course which demonstrated the student’s competency regarding gun safety for hunting purposes. 

I continually ask myself why we continue to see these terrible acts of violence being perpetrated upon our fellow citizens. There are some who would blame that violence upon the number of firearms within our society. I don’t necessarily believe that to be true, although I do believe that there are certainly some common-sense legislative remedies that need to be enacted.  

The enactment ofcommon-sense changes can be utilized to close up loopholes, which may help keep firearms out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them or are not properly trained to handle them safely. I’m not sure that the phrase “common sense” shouldn’t be better defined when dealing with those who pen those legislative rules. 

Mental health issues such as depression, anti-social issues, bipolar concerns, and aggressive tendencies all fall into these areas of concern with regard to a person’s state of mind and their potential to do harm to themselves and others. They are definitely red flags that should cause great concern regarding an individual’s suitability to own a firearm or have access to them. 

The perpetrator of the horrific Sandy Hook school mass shooting, which saw a loss of life totaling 28 individuals, including the life of the perpetrator on December 14, 2012, showed the 20-year-oldhad both access to firearms owned by his mother and exhibited mental health issues as detailed in the official report done by investigators. 

This report would validate the need to keep weapons secured within one’s home, especially in the case of these types of situations, never mind when youngsters or strangers might have access to those items when not properly secured. 

As in many of these incidents, it also rationalizes the phrase, “If you see something, say something.” In many cases where individuals observe strange behavior, a tragedy might be averted had they simply reported what they had observed or overheard. 

Our citizens enjoy one of the freest societies we find throughout the world. With that freedom comes responsibilities, and we must take those responsibilities seriously. That future lies solely in our hands and our hands alone. 

It is time for our society to have a deep conversation amongst ourselves as we reflect on where we go from here to prevent these terrible tragedies from continuing to occur within our society. 

These solutions lie within those adult conversations between those willing to act as adults while finally taking the necessary mature and long overdue actions without throwing the baby out with the bath water.  

America, it is time we quit kicking this issue down the road and have this mature conversation amongst ourselves while we finally act on this great debate within society.