Banning semi-automatic rifles isn’t enough to prevent another Sandy Hook

The horrible tragedy in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 children and six adults were killed was indeed an unspeakable and bewildering act of violence.

Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old son of Nancy Lanza, had several problems, including mental illness and behavior problems. In addition, he was taking anti-psychotic medication that can cause violent behavior. Regardless, the young man’s motivation for his acts came straight from hell.

We are all in shock and my prayers go out to each and everyone of those children, adults and their families.

What also bothers me is the fact that many people are focusing on the machinery that this young man used to commit such a horrendous act and they are losing focus on the root cause that led to the murders.

A tragedy like Sandy Hook is bound to happen again, with or without semi-automatic rifles, if we do not do something about the mentally disturbed walking our streets and attending our schools.

These acts did not occur nearly as often decades ago, so we must think about what has changed so much in our society to spawn so much more of this behavior and do what we can to learn and correct it.

It is my opinion that this deranged young man would have used any gun available, including so-called legitimate shotguns and rifles and would have done just as much damage. Banning a certain type of semi-auto firearm is not going to fix the root cause of what happened, whether it was fostered by our present culture, violent video games, or lack of proper mental health facilities.

What seems unreasonable is to propose more gun legislation and not propose other preventive measures that could help prevent such a thing from happening again. We will never totally prevent such crimes, but we sure can take appropriate precautions such as increased school security, better mental health reform while not taking more steps to erode our rights and freedoms to protect ourselves and our friends and families against threats, whether they be foreign or domestic.

We all have that right. However, the overwhelming majority of far left liberals and their elected officials are anti-gun and anti-second amendment activists, anyhow. And it is an insult that they are willing to take advantage of this tragedy to achieve their goals of disarming citizens.