I've wondered about that. After Vietnam, for example, I don't recall so many incidents involving guns even though PTSD was very widespread. Vietnam vets often got into drugs or drank heavily, there were fights and lots of maladjustment. But these incidents of murder/suicide were fewer, at least as I recall.An Iraq veteran who is believed to have killed his 11-year-old sister and himself in Gilroy this week had been upsetting his family with his talk of suicide and brandishing of guns. When they called police to their apartment two weeks ago, they told the officer the war had left their loved one a changed man.
Zillmer [psychologist Eric Zillmer, a Drexel University professor and co-editor of the book "Military Psychology] said record keeping on suicides and murders by veterans suffering from PTSD is a modern phenomenon, so it is impossible to know if the problem is any worse now than during previous wars.
Gun availability is one obvious difference.
What's your opinion? For sure the family made a tragic mistake in not taking proactive steps to prevent this. Do you think the pro-gun talk of rights and freedom, as they define it, contributes to the difficulty of disarming an obviously dangerous person before they go off the deep end?Faustino Gutierrez, 46, Martha Gutierrez's brother, said the young veteran would sit on a sofa twirling a handgun and also brandished a rifle inside the family's apartment. He had recently returned from Iraq.
"He said he killed a lot of people in Iraq," Faustino Gutierrez said. "It was in his conscience, and he didn't want to live anymore."
I think so. The combination of gun availability and the misguided importance many folks place on the "right" to own guns is a deadly combination in many cases.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
Weren't the gun ownership numbers in the early 70s about the same as today on the basis of a percentage of the total households? In addition, I hear stories from vets about how much easier it was then to smuggle home a trophy firearm. Gun availability isn't the answer to the question that you've asked.
ReplyDeleteSeriously? You wanna bring up pro-gun issues? This fellow, stupidly, joined the military where the entire training is based on killing people. He then goes to a another country and kills who knows how many people that had done our country no wrong(without a peep from anyone here about those murders). Then, in a moment of self-punishment, gets what he deserves and your question regarding all this is gun availability? That is just sick.
ReplyDeleteorlin sellers
Orlin, I agree with you on the bigger anti-war issues. But, that's the country we have. I don't see that changing anytime soon. Therefore one of the most concrete and easily controlled factors in violence is the gun availability which is at an all time high. Crazy and dangerous people shouldn't have access to guns at all. The more we can limit that the better off we all are.
DeleteOrlin Sellers:
ReplyDelete"Seriously? You wanna bring up pro-gun issues?"
It's his blog, asshole, he gets to bring up whatever he likes. You can do that at your own blog, why don't you?
"This fellow, stupidly, joined the military where the entire training is based on killing people. He then goes to a another country and kills who knows how many people that had done our country no wrong(without a peep from anyone here about those murders). Then, in a moment of self-punishment, gets what he deserves and your question regarding all this is gun availability? That is just sick."
Let's see, how can I reply to this in a measured, yet forceful way? Fuck you, you lying, gutless, sack-of-shit--oh, gee, I hope I haven't hurted your fee-fees.
You and your cowardly gunzloonz pals rail against the U.S. military while crowing about your 2nd amendment right to "keep and bear arms". Yeah, I can see people like you being in the militia, as long as you don't have to leave your own property.
Democulo, you old bat, I only say that because you obviously can't see the difference between taking gun safety courses and spending months learning and training to be a killer, voluntarily and by choice.
ReplyDeleteorlin sellers
"Democulo, you old bat, I only say that because you obviously can't see the difference between taking gun safety courses and spending months learning and training to be a killer, voluntarily and by choice."
ReplyDeleteAnd I say, "fuck you", because that's the most civil thing I can think of to say to a whining cowardly piece of shit like yourself who complains about the military while bragging about his own proficiency. I'm guessin' you don't like cops either--but you're okay with the FD, right?
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