Guns are the #1 killer of children and teens.

Bad social policy contributes to gun proliferation and endangers public health

As a Social Worker, I have been trained in Social Policy development, enactment, and evaluation. I have taught Social Policy to BSW students as an adjunct professor. One of the things that has concerned me over the years is the lack of understanding that social policies have consequences which are usually long term as compared to short term resulting in lack of understanding about the relationship. In other words, most people don't have the knowledge and context to connect the dots.

Policies promoted by the NRA and other advocates for second amendment rights restricting background checks and making guns freely available to people not properly trained in their management and storage has lead to the high prevalence of gun deaths not only of children and adolescents but of adults mostly from suicide because of the efficiency of the means used by people so inclined to end their lives.

The United States is unique in this phenomenon of high rates of gun deaths among all countries on this planet. From a public health perspective the proliferation of guns among the populace is a major toxic factor contributing to this sickness in the public health of Americans.

One of the primary factors contributing to the advocacy of gun availability is fear, insecurity, and lack of trust in other people in our communities, states, and country. This high level of social anxiety is a symptom of low levels of spiritual intelligence among the members of our society who have made an idol of guns, seeing them as an instrument of their salvation. Statistically nothing could be further from the truth. Owning a gun makes it more likely the gun owner will die from a gun than if they did not own it. Guns do not make the gun owner safer. A person might say that the idea that owning a gun will make the owner safer is the work of the devil who has tricked the person into believing this lie.

Where does a person's true safety lie? It is in believing and acting on the injunction to "love thy neighbor as you love yourself." You mean I have to love him? I have to love her? The answer is that love has to begin somewhere. Why not with you?

We have a lot of work to do to raise the level of consciousness in our society. Only then will we see the demand that our legislative representatives improve our gun safety laws. The citizen demand will not occur until those citizens become wiser and understand what policies are really in their interest and in the interest for the common good.