Return letter from Senator Pat Roberts on America's guns

I'm always about contacting and writing our legislators--specifically our Representatives and Senators in Congress--about important, pertinent issues of the day. Naturally I wrote them after the shooting slaughter in Newtown, Connecticut last week.

After writing Senator Pat Roberts, his office sent me the following note:

Thank you for your letter regarding the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. I appreciate your taking the time to write, and I value your opinion.

The horrific tragedy and the innocent loss of life that occurred on December 14, in Newtown, Connecticut is heartbreaking. As a father and grandfather, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends who are mourning the loss of their loved ones. Our nation grieves with them.

Law enforcement is working aggressively to determine what exactly led this obviously mentally ill person to commit such an act. Despite the death of the alleged murderer, I understand the Newtown Police and the FBI are thoroughly investigating this case as if it would go to court so that we may learn from this tragedy. As a society, we must be willing to move beyond the obvious question to really take a hard look at why these senseless acts of violence continue to play out in towns across America. It’s time to have an honest discussion about the culture of violence in America and more specifically, the root cause of this and other types of violence: mental illness. We will have a debate over gun control, however, law enforcement must do its work so that the public is informed, and we can determine appropriate and implementable solutions to prevent future acts of violence by disturbed individuals.

Again thank you for taking the time to contact me. If you would like more information on issues before the Senate, please visit my website at http://roberts.senate.gov. You may also sign up on my home page for a monthly electronic newsletter as well as follow me on Facebook at Facebook.com/SenPatRoberts and Twitter at Twitter.com/SenPatRoberts for additional updates on my work for Kansas.

With every best wish,

Sincerely,

Pat Roberts

I was heartened by this part that "...we must be willing to move beyond the obvious question to really take a hard look at why these senseless acts of violence continue to play out in towns across America..." What seems to point out a possible trend, however, shows itself here. Senator Roberts next line that "...the root cause of this and other types of violence: mental illness" is just nonsense.

Sure, mental illness leads to some of these mass shootings. You have to be, to an extent, either crazy or angry or both to do such a thing. But to blame this shooting on "mental illness" and make that the point takes far too much pressure off the fact that assault weapons are a culprit and need to be banned, thoroughly and simply. They serve no good purpose for hunting nor for anything else positive. They are only good for mowing down large quantities of people very quickly. It looks like mental illness will "take the fall", so to speak, for this insane slaughter.

What's ironic is that the gun supporters and Right Wing and "conservatives" and Republicans that do this will be laying it on our health care system, in spite of the fact that they slash health care funding, public and otherwise, repeatedly.

We are one crazy nation.