Guns and Illegal Immigrants

A 31-year-old woman, beautiful and in her prime, strolled down a popular tourist attraction in San Francisco and was gunned down randomly by an illegal immigrant. Now it turns out the gun used was one lost by a federal agent and somehow procured by the immigrant. He says he found it wrapped in a cloth.

Why he used the gun is a mystery. Why the gun was ‘lost’ and wrapped in a cloth to be found is another mystery. The fact that the shooter was an ‘illegal immigrant’ is yet another mystery.

Which of the mysteries is the controlling item in the tragedy has yet to be discovered. One thing remains quite evident: the young woman was doing what she was supposed to be doing and at the right time. She was enjoying life and freedom and a magical place.

Perhaps the three mysteries had to occur as they did all together for the tragedy to have happened. But some things need to be separated from the mix.

First off, being an illegal immigrant – whatever that means in this case – has really nothing to do with it.

Second, the gun’s presence was vital to the tragedy.

Third, the mental circumstances of the shooter seem to be of paramount importance. Why did he pick up the gun? Why did he choose to use it as he did? What social norms and mental health conditioning were operating within him to let loose a bullet, let alone aim it at an innocent person at random? What propelled him to act in this manner?

Now, with that said, let’s focus attention on that key question.  We’ll let the other authorities track down the gun and learn when it was lost, under what circumstances it went missing, and how it became found and wrapped and stashed so the shooter ultimately came to discover it? That whole scenario really is separate from the tragedy, but a piece of it in need of understanding.

The immigrant piece is not a part of the tragedy. It is a happenstance. No amount of political nonsense can make it otherwise. Oh sure, if he had been confined by the border and not been present in San Francisco, he would not have been a player in this incident. No, this tragedy has nothing to do with the immigration debacle both political parties continue to knock heads over, and created in the first place!

The fact that a gun was available is issue number one. Unsupervised, uncontrolled, the gun was where it was available for use.

The mental faculty of the shooter is an important consideration in the incident. How do we protect ourselves from such people? How many of these folks walk among us every day? How do we recognize them? How do we treat them? Who has responsibility for this element of our communal life? Do we really understand this challenge?

I think not. The proof is that we don’t talk about the gun. We do talk about the shooter’s immigration status. And that has nothing really to do with the incident.

Come on America! Are we going to do the hard work of managing our risks? Or are we going to give in to the baseness of our prejudices? The issue here is mental stability. And uncontrolled guns in our society.

We have more guns per person in America than anywhere else on the globe. And we have more gun deaths here than anywhere else on the globe. The relationship is clear. We need to focus on that issue and fix it. There are options to do so without cancelling out the Second Amendment. Look for solutions folks, not reasons to avoid solutions.

Now back on the real challenge: what do we do about mental illness in this country? We cannot execute them all. We need to treat them and heal them. For their sake and ours.

Suggestions?

July 10, 2015