TRIGGER WARNING: Mental Health, Guns, Shootings
Over the past several months, Sweet Oak Collaborative has been focusing on mental health needs, the resources and support necessary for those struggling with mental illness, and pursuing solutions for what is sorely lacking in our city.
We are learning about the large numbers of individuals in the criminal justice system who return as repeat offenders because there isn’t a plan, a place, a process, or a person to serve as their safety net.
Most individuals with mental illness or addiction leave a jail cell only to return to the street. They often receive insufficient support from family or friends who simply cannot provide it. Facing a lack of insurance or immediate access to a rehab program, they frequently return to jail after yet another arrest.
Mental health needs don’t disappear while individuals are behind bars. They don’t disappear when they leave on probation or parole. They don’t disappear even if they re-enter a home or family life that has not taught them the skills or provided the support needed to be successful.
It takes a whole lot of effort for a family to deal with the needs of a child with mental illness or addiction. And a family struggling to keep a job, a roof over their heads, or food on the table cannot be expected to do this without a lot of compassion, kindness, and support.
Recently, there was a shooting in our B/CS community. A life was lost, others were physically injured, and many more are traumatized and emotionally wounded for a long time to come. There is disbelief, anguish, anger, and a search for answers. We don’t yet have all the answers, but we do know that those with mental illness and access to a gun have the capability to inflict great harm. Every shooting is a tragedy whether someone is hurt or lives are lost. Our hearts go out to the loved ones who are hurting.
Many of our teenagers today weren’t yet born, and others may have easily forgotten, when Adam Lanza took legally owned guns from the home, killed his mother, and then shot up children and adults at Sandy Hook school. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris assembled an arsenal of weapons and planned the massacre at Columbine, shooting from their home garage—two best friends who fostered their isolation, malice, desire for revenge, depression, psychosis, introversion, and suicidal tendencies.
Responsible gun laws do not require taking away everybody’s guns or destroying the 2nd Amendment, as some incorrectly believe. Own your weapon legally, submit to a background check (just like we need a license and must take a test to drive our cars legally on the road), protect your family, and hunt if you enjoy hunting. But for heaven’s sake, please keep weapons stored safely, away from young children or other vulnerable adults in the home. Do your part to stop the illegal sale of guns at gun shows. Advocate for bans on assault rifles. It is hard to understand and justify why anyone needs high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic weapons to protect their homes and families or to hunt.
Laws can change a lot, but not how we raise children within our families. Oversight, discipline, and respect begin at home.
- Where are our kids?
- What are they doing?
- Who are their friends?
- Whose money are they spending?
- What is on their phone?
- What access do they have to the internet and the darkness lurking on the web?
- Are we trusting our kids to raise themselves, to protect themselves from bullying?
What are we missing? What are we blind to? Is life so busy, going by so fast that even those who notice something amiss find it hard to say something or do something, because it is just too much effort to get involved? Have we been so desensitized, taught to leave things alone instead of stepping in to be a good Samaritan?
We have to be better than this. We have to do better as a community.
It is going to take all of us, not just when a tragedy happens, not after a tragedy happens, but long before it does.
If you would like to know more or get involved with our advocacy to bring more mental health resources to our community, send us a message and join our mission.