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My father started as a cadet in high school and became a gunner in WW I. The only weapon of mass destruction we had in our home was a fly swatter.

I’m thankful this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend that I grew up in a home where the only weapon of mass destruction was a fly swatter, and the only guns seen were in news photos or Hollywood films. A far greater threat was depression or addiction which were in the family and would get us if we didn’t watch out. So we got enough sleep, ate mother’s home-cooked meals, went to church on Sunday, seldom got sick and did well at school.

  • Our recipe for civilization, security and freedom boiled down to these simple behaviors.
  • What bothers me about the debate over guns in the United States is that it never gets connected to the debate over the care of the mentally ill. There is no coming together.
  • I am no statistician, economist or politician, but on behalf of thousands of bullet-ridden corpses, one named “Jesus” to use the Christian metaphor for love, I am a mourner and protester enraged by the prospect of another ‘high-noon’ confrontation between us survivors.
  • Some believe protecting their second amendment rights comes first.
  • Some believe protecting their democratic human rights has priority.
  • Corpses can’t help. 
  • Mentally ill people can’t either, as long as they’re in prison, on the streets or at home without professional treatment.
  • Call me naive, but I see restoring mental institutions as the lone shred of hope. It is a disgrace that they were abolished. People who are mentally ill can be treated and even be cured.

Here’s my remedy:

1.The NRA has a heart somewhere and should do itself justice by showing it by raising funds to pay for mental institutions as a noble cause. It would be good PR for them. It’s a better place for their money than bribes to politicians or increasing gun sales. Democrats might even learn to love them for it and contribute generously.

2. Gun owners should pay a tax for mental institutions on the purchase of guns and attachments. If they don’t like it, they might have to forego an addition of one or two to their collection of arms.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving weekend!

  • Let’s stop creating “crazies,” the product of a badly behaved, uncaring society.
  • Let’s make the NRA and the ‘Abolishers’ and the restored mentally ill all part of the solution, not the problem.
  • Let’s all fight the battle against mental illness by looking after those in our own families and then looking for ways to help those we see around us who may be vulnerable to it.

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