Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Navy Yard Shooting
It is very sad how every couple of months I get on twitter throughout the day and see news of another mass killing in the United States. And the one thing that makes these shootings worse is that most of them could have been prevented. The Navy Yard shooting proves that their are flaws in our nations security systems, our health care system for the mentally ill, and also poor controls on previous offenders of the law. If you put a gun in the hands of a mentally unstable person, their is a high chance they will use it. Aaron Alexis had a history of infractions as a Navy reservist, mental health problems and a history of gun violence, yet somehow he gained clearance at the security gait at the Navy Yard. Its kind of crazy that a guy who had a history of misbehavior while on active duty can still be called up for active duty. It is also astonishing that a major defense contractor did not have a problem hiring a person with a bad military past and an arrest record for two time gun use. The shooter should have been a convicted felon for his previous violations of the law, who then would not have been able to own a gun, and also would not have been given clearance to go on the naval base. Greater enforcement of current laws could have easily prevented this massacre. Aaron went to the Veterans hospital twice last month for insomnia and was never committed. He also had PTSD. Since he was never committed he was then able to buy the gun he used in the shooting. Simple health care and security actions could have prevented this horrible shooting.
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I couldn't agree more on how many different actions could have been taken to stop this unstable human being. It is a shame that this event occurred but like you said, there were so many things security clearances messed up on, and with that, I hope they can fix them and allow one of these events to never happen again.
ReplyDeleteExactly Connor, like I said in my post also, its surprising how someone like that can still be trusted to work in an environment such as that and be allowed to enter the premises with a weapon. I guess he just wasn't screened properly or thoroughly enough by officials at the Naval yard. Maybe the United States will keep better tabs on the people they hire to work in sensitive places such as these, if not all places government work is concerned.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like the perfect storm of failures, accidents, and mistakes. I wonder if there is some overriding theme to the failures, though? Is this series of events an index of something about our time and our politics? Certainly the use of contractors for so many aspects of the government is an important change over the past few decades.
ReplyDeleteMore security clearly should have been in place to prevent this. It is very unclear how something like this could slip through the cracks. This is one step that could have potentially stopped this from happening.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more. How many more preventable tragedies have to happen before we wake up and do something and make sure that mentally ill people can't get their hands on guns?
ReplyDeleteI agree, this is a unique occurrence revolved around gun control: how could this man have access to guns and, furthermore, how could this kind of massacre take place at a military base. We, as a nation, must tighten up security and take guns out of the hands of bad people and put more in the hands of the good.
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