A Call to Action from the Nation's Nurses in the Wake of Newtown

HEAR HEAR! Georgia get on board!

How could there have been a shooting in a place clealy labeled a gun free zone? More knee jerk liberal reactions that won't solve anything.

IMHO, if mental health services were available to every person who needs or wants help, regardless of income or social status, there'd be no need for so-called "gun control" (which is really law-abiding citizen control). Just saying.

This is the basis of the it’s-a-slippery-slope argument, where Fear-Mongers afraid of the government taking all of your weapons away justifies ANY and all weapons being available to normal average citizens no matter how dangerous or how ridiculous!!! Fortunately, you guys (to include the NRA that is only in business to support the GUN MANUFACTURERS and not the Second Amendment, which does not protect the need for assault weapons in the hands of civilians) are not going to get away with pushing this garbage argument this time. Especially not after 20 babies were killed and everyone in this country and around the world was paying attention.

Assault weapons and high capacity clips are not necessary for CIVILIANS of any kind to own. There is not a single civilian that needs access to these things to hunt for sport because they are mass people killers and have no other use!

By the way, not everyone who kills people is mentally ill! So, keeping these weapons out of the hands of mentally ill will not solve the problem of preventing the next mass shooting... This argument just kicks-the-can-down-the-road and distracts from the need to remove access of high capacity clips and assault weapons out of the hands of ALL civilians, just like the NRA and Gun Manufacturers wants.

You can make all the new laws you want, but the same problem will still exist ---- how will you enforce them???

All kinds of laws on the books NOW to prohibit cell phone use and texting while driving, but has it stopped?

Same thing about driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs. ETC, etc, etc.

Good intentions, but difficult to realistically enforce to have a real impact.

Criminals are criminals - just when you think you build a better mousetrap (to catch them), along come smarter rats.

I agree though, we do need something!

You can make all the new laws you want, but the same problem will still exist ---- how will you enforce them???

All kinds of laws on the books NOW to prohibit cell phone use and texting while driving, but has it stopped?

Same thing about driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs. ETC, etc, etc.

Good intentions, but difficult to realistically enforce to have a real impact.

Criminals are criminals - just when you think you build a better mousetrap (to catch them), along come smarter rats.

I agree though, we do need something!

This!!!

My thought is- even if we had laws to ban all guns, there would still be smuggling and those that want, will get them. Just like illegal drugs. There still remains the core issue of mental health and how poor our mental health system is- lack of access, not enough mental health professionals, and beyond poor pay for those few mental health health professionals we do have.

It's amazing- this country always has all this money to pay nonessential space taker upers, people who sit in top offices all day growing fat behinds and making bad decisions, airheads and bimbettes, but no money to pay professionals who actually work in a worthwhile profession.

I really don't like it when organizations I belong to take detailed stands without consulting their members. The fact is, it's not just access to mental health services that needs improving, it's the commitment of society to protect itself from the mentally ill. Now before you jump all over me:

Two years ago the man down the street from us was repairing his roof. When it got dark he quit and went inside to spend the evening with his wife and son. My own son was friends with the older brother, who had moved into his own place as he and my son were both in their late 20s. The younger son, who I will call Cameron, had a history of mental health problems. He got plenty of care and attention from the mental health professionals and his parents, who were educated and caring people. About 1 a.m. Cameron, who had just quit taking his antipsychotic medicine, realized his parents were actually demons. He picked up his father's hammer and killed him. His mother escaped by hiding behind cars parked in our street. It was Cameron's choice whether to take his medicine and everyone had to live with it. Where is Cameron now? Living in a halfway house in town free to meet and greet you and me. Another case in point: A good friend of my son's was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and received plenty of care and attention from his own educated and caring family as well as many mental health professionals. As long as he took his medicine he realized government agents really weren't after him and led his life. He too decided to quit taking the pills and was arrested after flooding a commercial building which housed some government offices, among other tenants. Caused hundreds of thousands dollars worth of damages. Luckily nobody was hurt. My family and I are average ordinary people and other people could tell similar stories. Neither of these cases involved guns. But we just let the (literal) madness go on and on, pretending that people should be able to choose whether to be psychotic and run riot or not. The violence will not stop until we get serious about what free choice really is.