Letter to the Editor: Failure to Recognize Mental Illness Led to School Shooting
In a Letter to the Editor, Grayslake resident and attorney Jerry Novak writes that he feels the Newtown, Conn. school shooting was not the result of a lack of gun control, but a failure to recognize and treat mental illness.
Well by now I'm sure all of you are aware of the tragic school shooting in Connecticut. Its terrible. 27 lives lost. Why? Because of military "assault style weapons?" Because of high capacity magazines? Because guns are too easily obtained? Because we live in a "gun culture?" No. None of those reasons. Twenty-seven lives were lost because we as a population failed to recognize mental illness. We failed to recognize that some young man needed help. Help that he wasn't able to ask for. We failed to recognize his silent cries for help and we failed to help him deal with the terrible silent disease of mental illness. The disease won and we all lost. We lost our sense of safety for our children in school. We lost our ability to reason. And many…
Xander Crews
7:45 pm on Tuesday, December 25, 2012
If you read closely, I propose no laws. People don't need the government to tell them what they already know--having a violent psycho in the home SHOULD mean no more guns in the house. If there is a child/adult with tendencies of a pyromaniac, matches and gasoline should be put out of reach. does there need to be a law saying that? Probably not. If you have a sociopath for a child, with violent … more ›