I just don't know the answer

Our collective hearts are broken yet once again as we try to come to terms with another senseless massacre on American soil.

I’m not a fan of guns and don’t desire to own one myself, but I do respect the rights of others to own them. I don’t know much (if anything) about guns so I can’t argue the merits of one type over another. I will admit I don’t understand the need for regular, everyday citizens to own high-powered, 30- and 45-round assault rifles, but they’re legal in many places so who am I to argue.

What I do feel in my heart is that more gun control laws are not the answer.

Our country has long had a law enforcement problem — both at the policing and court levels. When law enforcement officers can get some charges to stick and actually get offenders to court, the alleged criminals get off with a slap on the wrist or they get off on some arcane, obscure technicality, usually because a human in the paperwork chain screwed something up.

The murder of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday morning is just the latest in an all-too-common occurrence in our nation. In this case, the deadly combination of mental illness, religious radicalization and hatred caused an American citizen to arm himself, march into a popular Orlando night spot and mow down innocent people just out to have a good time on a Saturday night.

The pro- and anti-gun camps have been slinging it ever since, while seemingly forgetting about the tragic loss of life, the probable permanent physical and emotional dismemberment of injured survivors and the emotional impact on the family members, colleagues, friends and neighbors of those lost.

As a friend of mine so aptly put it on a Facebook post of his, our elected leaders didn’t see fit to ban box cutters, cargo vans, fertilizer or any number of other products when those items were used to kill large numbers of humans.

Laws are on the books that prohibit any number of behaviors and acts, from rape and murder to street drug use and drunk driving. But women get raped on a daily basis by predators; citizens of all ages die on America’s streets every day at the hands of murderers; family members find relatives dead of drug overdoses every day; and the courts are full of trials and hearings for impaired drivers.

The bottom line is, law-abiding citizens will follow every law thrown at them. They might bitch and complain about the proliferation of laws and the far-reaching tentacles of government, but abide by those laws they will.

With a favor I hoped wasn't ever necessary, Paris showed its support for the Orlando terrorist attack. Photo credit: Owner unknown, posted on Facebook.

Criminals and criminal wannabes will always find a way to skirt laws, no matter how many you throw at them.

Now, it just so happens that the Orlando killer — I refuse to name him — procured his weapons legally. Despite two FBI investigations looking into the suspected behavior that led to this massacre, this guy passed the background checks and bought the weapons through a reputable arms dealer.

But if he had failed that background check, he would have found another way to get those guns if he really wanted them. And if he had suspected that he would fail the background investigation, perhaps he would have opted to go around that process and buy the guns on the street.

In any case, he bought them and then used them to carry out a heinous act of terrorism and hatred. He targeted gays just because of who they were and he mowed them down without concern for human life.

While the gun camps scream at each other, here’s where this nation needs to do some serious introspection: how we treat mental illness.

Just like I don’t understand why dental and vision coverage is separated from “regular” health insurance, I don’t understand why mental illness is treated differently than any other malady which may befall us. We aren’t told that our policy will cap treatment of strep throat or bronchitis or a torn ligament to $2,000 per incident, or limit the number of times we can go to the doctor to get that ailment treated. 

But visits to mental health practitioners are limited each policy year, and the co-pay is outrageously expensive and in many cases, cost prohibitive.

Combine those elements with the very real stigma that still exists when it comes to acknowledging mental illness and it’s not hard to see why so many people go undiagnosed and untreated.

In the case of the Orlando murderer, as far as I’m concerned, he had three known strikes against him.

He was strongly suspected to be an Isis sympathizer, he loudly announced his hatred for gays and his own friends and family members said he suffered from mental illness.

Yet he was still legally able to buy the guns that he used to forever change the lives of thousands of people directly and millions indirectly.

As I said to my sage Facebook friend, I don’t know the answer. Worse yet, I don’t know if there is an answer. Our society may have very well fallen to the depths that means this sort of massacre will happen again and again. It already has. 

Terrorists, both home-grown and foreign-born, have targeted elementary school children, cinema lovers, high school students, college students, members of the military, government workers, marathon runners and now members of the LGBTQ community to display their hatred and bias.

I’m sorry i don’t have the answers because I’d love to be part of the solution.

For the nth time, my heart goes out to the city of Orlando, the latest name in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. I hope and pray its citizens are able to come to terms with the senseless losses they have suffered, and I hope they are able to work for solutions as well.

But, also for the nth time, I wonder who will be next.

Because there will be a next. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

And that saddens me most of all.