Opinion

After Sandy Hook, Now What?

by Conrad Wolfe

In the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, lawmakers, politicians, and pundits have been quick to jump at the issue of gun control as the be-all, end-all issue surrounding these acts.
President Obama’s proposals for gun control are being fought by the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers. While the ownership of weapons capable of killing multiple people should indeed be examined, we are ignoring other legitimate causes of tragedies like this.
Psych medications, including antidepressants and SSRI inhibitors can be linked to 90 percent of school shootings, according to British psychiatrist Dr. David Healy. He is the founder of RxISK.org, an organization that researches and reports on prescription drugs.
Specifically in the case of Sandy Hook and the shooter Adam Lanza, Harvard-trained Psychologist Dr. Peter Breggin believes that “it’s likely that problems for Lanza (the shooter) began with ‘getting tangled up’ with psychiatric medicine.” Breggin also states that “there has been overwhelming scientific evidence for decades correlating psychiatrically prescribed drugs with violence.”
Yes, guns are a problem. However, in America’s case there’s already “pee in the pool.” We are at a point where there are too many guns in America for the government to be able to ban them or place severe restrictions on them.
But gun control is not alone going to solve this issue. The path lawmakers and experts need to take is to examine the lives of the various shooters throughout America’s past and figure out what went wrong in their lives to get them to the point of committing mass murder.
The role of mental illness in mass killings needs to be addressed, but so do the pharmaceutical remedies being used. The side effects from psychoactive drugs are all too real, and while they may help many people, they may also be responsible for pushing people over the edge.
This is something that needs to be talked about more, but I won’t be surprised if no light from the media or Congress will be shed on this possible cause.