LITTLE ROCK — When it comes to the national debate over what measures will help diminish incidents of mass murder, Americans are very much off target.
It’s not that there shouldn’t be a national discussion about the Second Amendment and what it means to our modern society. Guns are a fact of life in the United States, but measures to keep them out of the hands of people who demonstrate predictors of murderous violence are surely possible without infringing on anyone’s gun ownership.
- nature of the gun debate was clearly demonstrated in the wake of country singer Mindy McCready’s suicide. The headline in the national newspaper USA Today read “McCready’s deathhighlights guns in suicides.”
McCready’s tragic situation points out most of all how mental illness can devolve into violence.
But the gun debate is sexier and arguing for a ban on guns is far easier than a realistic conversation about how mental health programs can discover the troubled and guide them out of their darkness to a place of hope.
Our nation’s trouble is violence, not just gun violence. Consider the recent death of local car repair shop operator, Jesus Villalobos, 48. Our sympathies go out to his family and friends.
Villalobos operated Latino Tires in Springdale.
Juan Pablo Perez-Lopez left his car there Feb. 9.
The car’s owner told police he returned for his car on two days the next week and was told more parts had to be ordered. The third day, he showed up with a knife and, according to his statement to police, started stabbing Villalobos inside his oft ce and followed the shop owner outside.
Beyond the thought process that leads a man to stab someone over a car repair, here’s where the violence gets beyond belief. According to Perez-Lopez’s statement to police, he stabbed Villalobos two or three more times to make Villalobos stop hurting. Perez-Lopez said he put Villalobos’ hat over his face to keep others from seeing Villalobos, according to the police aft davit. Perez-Lopez said he told Villalobos to go to sleep, then stabbed him five more times in the throat and chest to make sure he was dead.
Folks, there’s much to be adjudicated in this case, but that statement is filled with evidence of mental problems. We’re not talking necessarily about the kind that renders an assailant not responsible for his acts. That’s a high legal standard. But these are signs of a man’s inability to handle anger and to have empathy for another human being.
If Perez-Lopez had used a gun, the crime would be one more piece of ammunition in the eff ort to limit guns. He used a knife, which will never get the same kind of hyperbolic blame as a gun. Lost in all of the debate is that violence is the common enemy, not the tool used to carry it out.
More emphasis needs to be focused on mental health intervention to have any chance to intervene before violence is carried out. But if McCready’s situation shows us anything, it’s how diftcult it is to convince people with mental health issues to accept whatever help is available.
The diftcult challenge facing us if there’s any hope in alleviating some of the nation’s violence?
How to make services readily available, and how to make sure those in need embrace the opportunity to detour their lives from a path toward tragedy.
Until we realize the real danger lurks in the minds of those caught in the darkness of mental illness, those other arguments will continue to be fueled by new tragedies.
Opinion, Pages 10 on 02/24/2013