Rant #2,085: No, No, No

Enough.

The latest school shooting, this one in southern Florida, took 17 innocent lives in a hail of bullets coming from firearms being shot off by someone who had clear, defined, mental health problems.

How someone with such a background obtained not just one firearm, but a whole arsenal of them, is beyond comprehension.

Were background checks done on this individual, and if they were done, were they adequate?

And why was this individual out on the street anyway?

I don't understand the need some people have to own guns. I have never understood this type of need, and I never will.

Yes, we have the right to bear arms, but having the right to do so, and to actually do it, are two different things.

I grew up in an era where we were clearly re-examing the "beauty" of bearing arms, legally or otherwise, for fun or for real. During the 1960s, yes, I had a toy gun. I remember in particular a toy tommy gun that I had, one, where if I pulled back the mechanism on the side of the gun and then pulled the trigger, I would have about 30 seconds of "rat-a-tat-tats" that could scare even the most learned person about guns.

It was that real.

And yes, I owned some other toy guns that used caps--remember them--which you fed through the gun and when the trigger of the toy gun was pulled, you not only got the sound, but you also got the visual of a real gun going off, including the smoke.

By the time I was eight or nine years old, the "beauty" of playing war or policeman or cowboy had worn off of me, and the toy guns were put away for good, but funny, this coincided with the increased rage that the Vietnam War was creating in our cities, being brought to us each night on the evening news.

People were enraged that we were fighting a war that many of us felt we didn't belong in, and yes, there was rage on the streets across America.

The toy guns were put away, replaced by flowers, and while the entire hippie era, with hindsight, might have been a bit over the top, it got people to thinking about the toll of war, and the use of guns.

Later, when I was an adult, two gun-related incidents left a major mark on me.

The first involved a person I knew of when I was growing up, and who my sister knew much better than me. He was the proverbial "kid who had it all," as he was smart, good looking, and was pegged as the most likely to succeed.

Unfortunately, as an adult, he spiraled into mental illness. One day, he did not take his medication, went to a gun store, purchased a gun like you or I would purchase a toothbrush, and then he went to a local motel, paid for a room, and did an Ernest Hemingway.

My mother and I paid a shiva call to his parents, and we could not stay long, as while the parents tried to put on a good face, they were clearly torn apart. It was very uncomfortable to say the least.

Several years later, a kid my son knew from Little League baseball, a kid that I had coached when he was very young, was playing with his father's firearms one day, the gun when off, and basically blew his head off.

His father was a cop, the guns in their home were not properly secured, and this tragedy happened.

I will never forget the funeral, where the entire league, dressed in their uniforms, attended to honor their fallen friend. It was the saddest thing I have ever witnessed, and honestly, to this day, I don't know how my son got through it.

And the proliferation of illegally purchased guns on our streets is another story for another time.

But today, we have had carnage in numerous schools across America, perpetuated by people who are mentally ill and who are enamored with firearms and getting back at people and institutions that rile them.

Schools, like places of worship and homes, are supposed to be sanctuaries, places where we should feel safe.

We don't anymore, witnessed by violent acts that have occurred in each of these places.

The bottom line is, mix mental health with guns, and a powder keg of potential problems can happen.

Let's remember Columbine, let's remember Sandy Hook, let's remember all the other places where this senseless violence has happened in recent times.

We need a set of national gun laws to govern gun ownership throughout this land. We cannot have one set of laws in one state, another set of laws in another state.

We cannot have one state where the laws are ultra-stringent, as they should be, and another, neighboring state where buying a gun is akin to buying a stick of gum.

When you have a license for anything, it shows that you have proficiency in that area, and that you also understand the upside and downside of the area that you have the license for.

I do believe that most people who purchase firearms and have a valid license to carry them legally know exactly what they are doing, are responsible, and understand the plusses and minuses of bearing arms.

But for that small fraction of people who don't get this, we need national, much more stringent laws as to who can bear firearms and who cannot.

Any blemish on one's record due to past mental health issues should be an immediate red flag. This can prove to be discriminatory, but you know what? If it prevents lives from being wasted--on both sides of the firearm--then I am all for such discrimination.

Look, I might not even be explaining this correctly, but we should have no more events like the one we just had in southern Florida.

Yes, it has to do with the failure of our mental health system to act, although in this case, they did act, until the future gunman refused to participate anymore.

In my mind, it has to do with lax gun laws that allow just about anyone to purchase a gun legally.

Laws must change, and our mindset must also change.

True, most gun owners are responsible citizens, but we must be able to weed out those who should never possess firearms. Just the same day as this horrific incident happened, I heard of two other young people with severe mental illnesses who planned on creating chaos in their local schools--they were both turned in by close relatives, and carnage was avoided.

How many other potential powder kegs are ready to explode?

Who knows, but national gun laws, including increased and more stringent licensing requirements, and increased scrutiny on our mental health system, might just prevent another Columbine or Sandy Hook from happening.

Whatever side of the fence you are sitting on--Republican, Democrat, Independent, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, or even non-political--we must all get together, as Americans, to demand that more accountability is necessary.

We simply cannot afford another incident like the one we had the other day in southern Florida.

Have a good Presidents Day and weekend. I will speak to you again on Tuesday.