An urbanist in the suburbs.

This is relevant to a thought I have been contemplating for a long time.

In the US, we talk about gun control like it will prevent any and all future mass killings, but that’s not true. I DO think we need better gun control, but I don’t think that will prevent murders from happening. I think stricter gun control is treating the method without treating the underlying causes.

I think we need to be more aware, more supportive, and more helpful towards people who are mentally unstable, before they become dangerously unstable. I don’t know how to go about it, I don’t know what the statistics are - but I know that events like this stabbing in Sagamihara, or the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, or the shooting that happened in my neighborhood a few months ago - those events were all perpetrated by people who clearly needed help *before* they snapped and started killing. If we stigmatize even the mildest and most manageable mental health issues, what kind of message does that send to people who are on the verge of murder? How many killings could we prevent, not by just taking away weapons, but by helping the people who are tempted to use them?