Blaming 73-year-old President Donald Trump for the latest mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, killing 39, injuring scores more, Democrats showed no restraint over Election Year politics. With over 350 million guns in U.S. circulation, there’s plenty of weapons to fall into the hands of bad actors, most of whom suffer from various forms of mental illness. Mental health experts insist that mental health issues don’t increase the risk of violence, despite the obvious findings to the contrary. While it’s difficult to establish motives in mass shootings, it’s abundantly clear that mass shooters have much in on. Most mass killers have quirky, reclusive personalities, maybe falling on the autism spectrum, but, more importantly, showing the psychopathic, guilt free, tendency to commits mass murder in the name of various causes, including white supremacy or immigration.
Looking for a motive steers law enforcement in the wrong direction, believing there’s always single motive, whether terrorism, racism, vendetta, major loss, relationship failure or any other excuse to commit mayhem. Mass shooters find it relatively easy access to firearms, including buying guns legally, going for recently federally approved rules about handgun purchases. Last week, New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) signed legislation to extend the waiting period for handgun purchases from three to 30 days. Cuomo believes extending the waiting period would give federal law enforcement more time to do comprehensive backgrounds checks. But without a national mental health database, it’s difficult to ascertain the mental health fitness of gun-buyers. Trump said today that his administration will redouble efforts to deal with the nation’s mental health issues.
Speaking in his home district of El Paso, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke called Trump a “racist,” blaming him for 21-year-old Patrick Crusius mass shooting. O’Rourke dared to bring up Trump’s harsh rhetoric against illegal immigrants, whose illegal crossings in the U.S. has created a border crisis never before seen on the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead of dealing with a mentally ill constituent, O’Rourke chose to take a shot at Trump for the mass violence. Whatever Trump says in his rallies, he certainly doesn’t tell his audience to go out and commit a mass shooting. “If you look at both of these cases, this is mental illness,” Trump said. “These are both really people that are very, very seriously mentally ill,” said Trump, though not specifying what, if anything, can be done Law enforcement officials admit that tracking down potentially mass shooters is a difficult thing to do.
Politicizing mass murder is a new low in Democrat politics, looking to blame Trump for his contentious campaign rallies that encourage violence. “We have heard this before, and he [Trump] didn’t say the word guns,” said Sen. Amy Klobushar, disputing Trump’s mental health explanation. Klobushar knows there are 350 million guns in circulation in the U.S., something not likely to change anytime soon. When it comes to dealing with mental illness, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extending gun-buying waiting periods last week from three to 30 days. But unless law enforcement can get their hands of federally protected medical records, there’s little a Department of Justice [DOJ] background check can do to stave off mass killings. When it comes to monitoring the Social media, like Facebook, Twitter or other popular platforms, Congress can pass legislation giving law enforcement more tools.
Increasing waiting periods does nothing to improve background checks unless Congress passes legislation to create a national mental health database, requiring mental health workers to report individuals with violent propensities. Reporting laws already exist where threats made by patients against second-or-third parties can be reported without violating privacy laws. Congress needs to pass mandatory legislation to create a national mental health database, requiring mental health workers to file mandated report in cases of violence, threats of violence. If DOJ background checks include a national mental health database, it’s possible law enforcement could act to intercept violence before it occurs. “He [Trump] is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotry,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.Y.), currently a 2020 Democrat presidential candidate.
Blaming Trump looks good in the headlines but does nothing to address all-to-common mass shootings plaguing the country. Whether at Virginia Tech in 2007 [32 killed], Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 [26 children killed], mass shooting in Las Vegas [58 dead], or mass shootings elsewhere, mass killers have much in common. Regardless of motives, they all look for soft targets where defenseless people are vulnerable to mass shootings. When you look at the complexity of the problems, blaming Trump does nothing to address the gun or mental illness issues. No one blamed Trump more than O’Rourke who flat out said Trump’s racism inspired the recent mass shootings. When politicians use complex sociologic events for political gain, it does nothing to fix the problem. Congress needs to act urgently to create a national mental health database to have any hope..
