Column by Dereck Johnson

In the wake of such tragic, and all-to-frequent, events such as the recent slaughter on the campus of Virginia Tech, we often hear the 2nd amendment debated in the papers, online and across various television news programs.

While it is natural for pundits to raise the issue of gun control as a potential solution to mass murder committed by use of a firearm, it may be a look in the wrong direction.

Certainly, a higher level of gun control could provide a greater barrier to those looking to perform these kinds of killings; it would certainly not be a solution to the real problem.

Indeed, the social or political issue here is not the tool, but the user. Mental health is an increasing problem in America today. Evidence for this fact can be found in ads for new drugs that seem to appear daily, increasing levels of drug addiction, and having a society that has 19 million people suffering from clinical depression according to Mental Health America.

We have a mental health crisis in this country and the events in Blacksburg are a product of that crisis. There are reasons for the presence of this problem in many of our institutions, including schools, health care facilities and even our families and peer groups. Truthfully, I’ll bet you never heard someone say “Bless you” to someone who seemed to be depressed or suffering from an addiction. It is a perfectly natural and socially acceptable thing to say when someone sneezes; it is standard to offer someone a glass of water when they are hacking away at the air with some terrible cough. And I am willing to bet that this young man who did these horrid things in Virginia on Monday was walking around with his body and language oozing anger, depression and a variety of other mental illnesses that aren’t easily hidden.

I’m not saying there is a person to blame; I’m saying there are some social problems to blame. First, the lack of availability of healthcare comes to mind. Even people with good insurance do not have the same coverage when it comes to mental health concerns. Let alone the embarrassing lack of help that the state provides to those suffering from mental illness, we don’t even provide for those who do pay for insurance.

We have a society that simply doesn’t care about the mentally ill. We stigmatize them, we poke fun at them, some get to be president, but most end up in 13-round bouts with their disease and their lives are severely affected. We don’t often see people offered help by friends or mentors either. In my own life I have suffered with bouts of alcoholism and no matter how many mornings I sat in class smelling like the ass end of a drunken ashtray or many obviously drunken communications I made via email, no one ever said a thing.

I mention this not to arouse blame for what were obviously personal problems, but to only point out that as a society we need to take a more concerned look at this issue and offer solutions. Most mental illnesses are treatable and those who get treatment have a good chance of achieving success.

Maybe, in that busy American mind of ours, in between trying to figure out who the next American Idol should be and how many thousands of calories we should consume at every meal, we can find a way to fix this problem.