Catholic social doctrine sheds light on how to combat gun violence

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/catholic-social-doctrine-sheds-light-how-combat-gun-violence
MGB:_Prayer can be used to unify a movement, as long as it is inclusionary. It can build solidarity as long as it is not a bar to membership. We certainly will not pray away the NRA nor should it be cheapened as protest tool, whether at NRA HQ or an abortion clinic.

It is true that subsidiarity has failed us in treating mental health, especially when we give individuals the right to refuse treatment when they are obviously sick. Hierarchical mental hygene, which included eugenics, went too far early in the century and we have overcorrected, which helped decrease spending on healthy but has filled the jails. Kafka rules. We need long term treatment for some before they offend, recognizing that many offenses occur due to lack of shelter and income (petty theft, public urination, lashing out when meds are gone). Disability needs to go to a living wage level, be easier to get and not be dependent on prior earnings, appropriations or the health of a trust fund.

It is not mental illness that causes school shootings, it is social isolation. Shootings at work and school are an extreme form of social protest for people who are tired of ”using their words.”It has become ”a thing” a very lethal fad. You cannot medicate that away.

Having popular students get national attention for trying to ban guns will not stop any school shooter unless they succeed in getting the guns and the ammunition (they tell me with no ammo, guns are useless). That type of ammo should no longer be sold outside of military contracts. Indeed, police should not even be able to get it, since using it on a suspect is death sentence.

Treat assault weapons the same way and use military contracts and mandatory buybacks (as in ATF goes to a gun shop or show and buys it and its contents, which are destroyed, except the collectors pieces).

Will this stop school shootings? As long as it slows them down and makes them less leathal, including for the shooters. Then maybe, instead of burying the shooters, we can ask them what went wrong in their lives. After about 20 years of prison, they will have the words to tell us.