Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:30 pm
1. Improve access to mental health care.
2. Something-something about liability insurance for gun owners, training requirements for licensing, tighten up state and local laws, and charge irresponsible adults as appropriate.
Both of the above ought to be universally upheld by both gun rights advocates and those not favorable to personal firearm ownership.
If every gun required a specific policy where an actuary was assigning risk factors to the ownership that affected the direct, observable out-of-pocket costs, we'd likely see more gun safe use and other risk-reducing behavior become the norm. If gun sales were more closely regulated by states with honest interests in the protection of citizens and not political statements, fewer high-risk individuals would get guns.
There's a reason an underaged teen whose parents let them drink alcohol does so in ways that still protect the parents from liability. Even bad parents are usually smart enough to have limits that protect others even if they don't realize that kid is still statistically more likely to drive under the influence than a kid whose parents are strict about observing age limits on alcohol use.
Treating firearms like a tool that has risks that come with poor decision making and realizing that there are reasons teens are considered high-risk with most other risky tool use, would be a step in reducing school shootings.
I've also wondered what would happen if school shooters who are spending the prime years behind bars were taken to schools to talk about what life in prison looks like compared to whatever set them off on a shooting spree? I wonder if kids who are thinking about doing something like this might be less inclined to follow through if they read the chapters in those lives that don't make the news after the event has faded?
Lastly, I think there is another issue that is personal but I think about often when I hear about someone who is school-aged shooting others. I have a nephew who committed suicide at age 15 with a firearm. He was depressed, struggling, and most of the adults in his life were doing their best to help. But one Saturday morning he took the firearm that he had easy access to and took his own life. The decision wasn't spurious but having access to act at a moment when he wasn't in the best state of mind to make even ok decisions has been devastating to my sister and her husband'/his stepdad. A lot of what contributed to his depression were things that get cited by people discussing the motives of kids who shoot up schools instead of themselves. He had not made the football team that year for reasons when he had loved it his freshman year, for example. He was going through some things including having a bad relationship with his biological dad that affected a ton of other things (as an minor explanation, his dad overdosed on opioids within a few months of this event which is...yeah. Some people just draw a rougher row to hoe than most of us...)
My nephew was a good-hearted kid. I don't think it would have crossed his mind to shoot other people. He should still be alive finding out life does get better, that people cared. He'd be in college now, or perhaps pursuing a trade like his stepdad. Or who knows what. But it would almost certainly be better than what he felt was worth ending it at the age of 15.