Is Gun Control the Answer? (Part 2)

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Eric D. McLeod
December 13, 2024

Gun violence continues to be a hotly contested issue at the forefront of the American consciousness. Since my last article in September, we have suffered yet another school shooting, this time at a high school in Georgia. This remains an issue of accountability, representation and legitimacy in public administration as we continue to work with lawmakers through the symbiotic relationship of the current politics-administration dichotomy of insisting on continuing with ineffective means of addressing this issue.

As public administrators, we are accountable to the public. As we continue to poorly implement poorly designed laws to address gun violence, we must answer for their repeated failures. In continuing to use the current lines of flawed logic, we are continually ostracizing different segments of society on both sides of the gun control argument, losing that representation pillar of our duty as public administrators. By failing in these two areas and not seeking ways to produce the most good for the most people in addressing gun violence, we risk losing the legitimacy granted to us by society. We simply cannot continue to do the same things and keep expecting different results.

This recent incident in Georgia only further reinforces the point made in my September article: that battling over gun rights and gun control is not effective in reducing or eliminating acts of gun violence; and yet we continue to focus the argument, and thereby the solution, on the gun itself. My call to find a new and different approach is further validated by this horrific act of violence because guns do not kill people; people kill people.

It is time to shift our focus from the gun to the force behind the gun that is driving the violence. Whatever the reason for each individual act of gun violence, a mental health crisis is what is at the heart of it. Again, a mental health crisis is not a mental illness. Mental health is part of the overall health and wellbeing of an individual.

If someone broke their arm, no one would think twice about that person going to the doctor for help. In our society, that is normal. Why is it that, in our society, it is not considered normal for someone to seek professional medical attention for a mental health crisis? These are not mental illnesses. These are things that many, if not all of us, have faced in our lives from time to time. If left untreated, it could lead to a violent outburst. Just as a cut or bone fracture could lead to an infection or even death if left untreated. In our society, it is largely considered a negative thing with the belief that something is wrong with that person. Mental health and physical health are the two halves of the whole person.

Mental illness, like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, is a long-term problem that requires long-term professional care and medication. It is not something that can be fixed; it requires ongoing management. A mental health crisis is a short-term problem that requires professional therapy in the form of talking and being heard. Understanding that you may be broken, but there is not something wrong with you.

It will require a significant shift in the cultural view in our society of mental health and wellbeing in order for public administrators to be able to implement new laws and policies that address this issue effectively. Once society normalizes mental health and wellbeing, accepting it as part of the whole person, we can begin to move forward with addressing the issue of gun violence in this country.

Conclusion

Instead of continuing to react to gun violence with more ineffective laws, it is time to become proactive in addressing and treating the actual problem that leads to the violence.

By recognizing the signs and symptoms of a mental health crisis in ourselves and each other, we can begin to get the help that we actually need to be better, more positively productive citizens in society.

Only by addressing a mental health crisis early, before it can have time to boil over into an act of violence, will we begin to see a dramatic reduction or elimination of these acts of violence in the form of mass shootings or school shootings in the United States. This solution is not inclusive of traditional gun violence, like that of gangs or organized crime. While those acts are also gun violence, they represent a different underlying problem requiring a different solution. That is a study for another time.

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Author: Eric McLeod has a Master of Public Administration from California Baptist University in Southern California. He is currently in the DPA program at CBU. He has served the public for over 16 years with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Initially, he worked in crime scene investigations with their forensics unit. He is currently a deputy coroner with the Department, conducting death investigations. Email: [email protected] 

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