Suicide sucks.

It’s a slap in the face to the world and all the people you leave behind.  It’s the ultimate selfish act.  Help is available.  There’s always help available.

In time, you can examine what happen and try to learn from it.  But in the immediate aftermath, you must grieve.  It’s part of the process.

So, in California right now, Pastor Rick Wilson of the mega Saddleback Church is dealing with the fact his 27-year-old son committed suicide last week.  Just shot himself.  Again, it’s their time to mourn.  But being on the outside of all this, I can’t help but wonder—so, where’d the gun come from?

In the letter to his congregation, Pastor Wilson said that his son “suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts.”   Sounds like the perfect household to have an unlocked gun!

The connection between mental illness and gun control is inescapable.  There is a major link that both sides want to ignore.  The mental illness people want to protect the rights of those facing those issues, while gun proponents don’t want any restrictions on anyone, even those mentally unbalanced.

I don’t recall the second amendment guaranteeing the right to be able to shoot up schools and movie theaters.  A little common sense needs to break out here.

If you have a serious alcohol problem and drink and drive, you can lose your license.  Your car can be impounded.  Rapists and pedophiles are identified so that we know who they are.

I don’t need to know who is stable and who has mental issues.  But someone selling rifles that fire off 30 rounds in a second–THEY need to know.  Maybe it’s a mark on a driver’s license or a government file that would be triggered in a background check.  I don’t feel the need to own a weapon.  Been there, done that.  When I did have a couple of rifles, they just sat around, collecting dust.  I completely respect your right to own a gun, as guaranteed in the U.S. constitution.  Of course, back then, that meant having a musket you could load and fire off.

Now, back to Pastor Wilson.  One of the best things he could do to help prevent future suicides is to find out where that gun came from.  Perhaps the answer is too clear and they had it sitting around the house.  Then, shame on them.  If a friend sold it to the kid, they get the shame.  Friends should have known about his instability.

We can turn to the government for help on these issues, but remember—WE are the government.  We elect people to handle the paperwork, but we’re the ones ultimately in control of our day-to-day lives.  We need to say, “Enough is enough.”  It’s up to us to take some serious steps that make it as difficult as possible for the mentally damaged to get these weapons. How many more Aurora Theater incidents do their have to be?  Shouldn’t Newtown be the last mass shooting at an elementary school that ever happens?

What’s it going to take to make us all just a little bit more responsible and aware of the obvious red flags?

Whatever you do, please don’t say, “Well, it doesn’t really affect me.”

Tim Hunter