By Juan Guerrero

Everybody has the right to bear arms, but should the mentally ill have that right too?

There were about 6,500 deaths due to shootings in 2016 and in which some horrific cases were from shooters that were classified as “mentally ill”. Since 1968 federal law has prohibited anyone with any sort of mental defective or has been committed any mental institution. Which is why we have background checks to make sure there isn’t anything that could be an issue in someone’s mental health records before they buy a gun. Obviously we don’t want anymore tragic shootings to occur in the United States but is right to avoid these kinds of people to own these guns besides the right to bear arms?

We understand that someone with a serious mental issue that affects their everyday lives is not a good idea to own a gun, but what about veterans with PTSD? Yes, they were soldiers that went through a lot of experience with all kinds of weaponry but at an old age flashbacks, triggers, and nightmares can cause some serious damage to their mentality. Potentially risking the lives of others if they were armed during a breakdown of some sort. Although PTSD doesn’t make most of them have an inability to live normally in their everyday live. Most of them take medication or often learn how to control it by staying away from their triggers. It’s probably good idea to provide them with some sort of supervision with their health and weapon of choice. Most veterans would agree that war was definitely a place that can leave scars, but taking away weapons like most suggest probably won’t make that much sense if most of them can still protect themselves efficiently unlike another with a much more serious mental health issue.

Guns don’t people, people kill people. The solution to the problem is to not take away the weapons, but to provide the right support for those in need in order to avoid some serious, devastating, detrimental actions. Most of these mass shootings were caused by people with some serious mental instability that did not get the help that they need or were not even noticed from all the hints they leave behind where someone can say, “Oh my, that’s not a good sign. This person could use some sort of support.”

We understand the importance of having the right to bear arms, but I’m sure we could also understand that as a country we would try our best to prevent any kind terrorist attacks to save lives.