Is the goal reasonable gun control laws, or is the goal saving lives?

[Alva Goldbook]

5. Generally, there are two kinds of crimes committed with guns.

By far, the greatest problem with guns is street crime. In 2012, there were 16 mass shooting events, which was an incredibly high number of such events for a given year, which left 88 people dead. Out of the 12,000 who are killed by guns every year, this amounts to only 0.73% of total firearm homicides.

Mass shooting events are very rare, but tragically, they are becoming far more common. What we should notice about these events is that, unless I'm mistaken, each and every single one of these events involve teens or young adults with a well documented history of mental illness.

We don't have the luxury of looking at their medical files, but the most common mental illness is depression, and one of the most commonly prescribed medication for depression is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's). SSRI's in teens and young people have already been linked to violent and suicidal behavior. We need to investigate if SSRI's were used by each of these mass shooters.

It seems to me, that if we want to prevent these kind of events, the best solution is to have a health care system in this country is that is universal, single payer, and includes mental health care, including regular physical and mental health check ups for every citizen in the country. We do a very poor job of treating mental illness in this country, and we need to solve this problem.

This is also an income inequality issue as well: the United States has a mental illness rate that is 3 times higher than the most equal nations like Japan and Sweden. It's been well documented that psychopaths tend to grow up in unstable and chaotic households. However, if a child is genetically at risk of developing psychopathy, they often will not develop it if they grow up in a stable and loving household.