Whenever there is a mass shooting, there is endless discussion by the mass media that the shooting is complete proof that they are right about gun control. I like to refer to the mass media as the “master media” because the media’s response to shootings demonstrates their desire to be master of our thoughts, beliefs and our actions. The liberals love to accuse conservatives of being control freaks. Yet, the media continues to push an agenda of thought control, as well as gun control.

I understand the liberals taking the positions they do. If a liberal wants to hold a prominent position in a college or media company, original thought will not be tolerated and they better toe the party line or they will quickly lose their job. What disappoints me is when the conservatives start believing the things liberals believe. Conservatives claim to know better, however if that is actually true their knee jerk reaction does not make sense.

The knee jerk reaction I am referring to is when the conservatives start screaming that the mass shootings are not proof of the need for gun control, but proof that the government needs to control what the mentally ill do. The conservatives’ belief that the government can know when someone is going to become mentally ill and prevent them from owning a firearm is just as misguided as the liberals’ belief that the government can know when a person is going to become a criminal and use a firearm to commit a crime.

Anyone with a belief should ask if their belief is based on facts or feelings, especially if they want to force others to follow their beliefs. Gun control law is a reaction to fear and an effort to make the people who are afraid feel safer regardless of what the law actually does.

A gun is a tool just as a hammer is a tool. I can take a hammer and use it to build a guard rail that prevents people from falling over the edge of a building. That would be an example of using a tool to protect life. A different person could use the same hammer to threaten to beat a hole in my head if I do not give them some money. They could also use the hammer to beat me to death if they hate me and want to commit murder. This would be an example of using the tool to commit a crime. It should be understood that the hammer can be used to commit a crime the first time an individual commits a crime or after a career criminal has committed a multitude of crimes.

Mentally ill people can use tools to hurt people just as criminals can. If someone wants to use an insanity defense they must show they are so insane that they cannot understand the difference from right or wrong.

The mental health community does not maintain a stable position on what they consider right or wrong. Their position of what is considered mentally ill has changed as well. One example is if a person has male body parts, but believes they are a woman. Previously, the mental health community would consider this a sign of mental illness. They used to consider a man ignoring his male anatomy and considering himself a woman, no different than ignoring the fact that his arms were not tree branches and thinking he was an oak tree. At that time, they would try to treat the individual and help them to accept the reality of their body parts and to act accordingly. Now, they demand that we accommodate the individual’s beliefs regardless of what their anatomy may be.

What qualifies as right and wrong has changed as well in the perception of many. At one time it was wrong to kill a baby (It still is). Today, what matters is who kills the baby and why. If a woman is pregnant and gets ran into by a drunk driver and the baby dies, the drunk driver can be arrested and jailed for murder. The same woman can go to a doctor and the doctor can kill the baby. Not only will the doctor not be prosecuted, but the government may make us be the ones to pay the doctor for killing the baby.

The medical community is just as unstable in what they believe is good or bad. It has not been that long ago that a doctor could be seen on a television commercial saying that smoking cigarettes was healthy, and that you should buy and smoke cigarettes. One day eating butter is good and another day it is bad. Even drugs declared good by the Food and Drug Administration are regularly being removed from the market because it has been discovered that even though they were declared good they are actually bad.

Considering the fact that what is considered good or bad, and what is considered mental illness or not mental illness continues to change and be unstable, why do conservatives think the mental health or medical community is capable of stopping someone from thinking wrong and using a tool wrong from mental illness? The conservatives do not think the government can know who is going to become a criminal before they commit a crime and not allow them to own a firearm, why do they think they can know who will become mentally ill? This is especially important since what is or is not mentally ill is constantly changing.

The biggest problem is that everything has been politicized. Everything from health care, education, religion, even the weather has been politicized. Further politicizing mental health and force medicating people will only make matters worse. The medical community is the biggest it has ever been, that includes the mental health community. The police have the most money, resources, and power they have ever had. The same can be said for education. Whatever the schools want, the schools get. If after devoting all the power and money to the government we still get mass shootings, maybe we should start looking at the government as the failure, instead of giving the government more power.