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Now here's an interesting insight. Parents are more confident their pre-teen child would know what to do if there were a house fire or tornado than whether the child would avoid playing with guns if home alone, a new national poll says, according to newswise.com. When my son was little, I never thought to ask the parents on a playdate whether they had a gun in the house, as some friends smartly did.  But then, that was before 20 1st graders were massacred in Newtown. Today, with growing gun use (even by women) after every tragedy caused by a gun, it's a no-brainer.  At the time my son was in elementary school, I probably would have felt embarrassed to ask.  But today, if he were small, it would be the first question I would need to have answered before allowing him to play at another child's house. In the past I just assumed the people I and my child were friends with were smart enough not to have a gun.  But today you just can't be sure.  I'm amazed a...

Probably this is the last thing you would think about if you were planning to end your life , but did you know that the way we make decisions can affect whether life pushes us to this dire action? According to newswise.com, difficulty making choices is one of the factors that make certain people vulnerable to suicide.  Now, does that mean if you can’t decide between a Big Mac and a Whopper for lunch, you’re going to go out and get a gun? Obviously not.   But in light of the recent awful killing of two journalists in Virginia this week, was that murderer obsessed with choices he couldn't make sense of, or grapple with?  We'll never know.   I'm not looking for sympathy for him.  What he did was heinous and he deserved to rot in prison -- or die slowly, painfully -- if he hadn't killed himself.  It hardly matters, in the end.   But researchers have found that high-risk decision-making was prevalent among many parents of indiv...

Here's a connection you may not have made in the past.  Doctors and guns. But a new survey of North Carolina doctors has found that many are concerned about the increasing number of requests they are receiving to assess their patients’ competency to carry concealed weapons. In particular, a majority of physicians who responded to the survey said they were worried about the potential ethical consequences in the doctor-patient relationship if they participated in the concealed-weapon permit process, according to newswise.com. “This is not a small problem,” the Web site quotes Dr. Adam Goldstein, corresponding author of the study and a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “More than 20 percent of the physicians we surveyed have been asked to sign competency permits for concealed weapons, and a majority of them do not feel they can adequately assess the physical or mental competence of their patients to ...

While we know way too many children and teens are killed by guns (last count: 11,000  people, many of them younger than 12, in 2013, according to Slate, which took up the accounting after Newtown), did you know that a lmost one child or teen an hour is injured by a firearm seriously enough to require hospitalization? Michelle Healy at USA Today reports that a new study shows that six percent of the 7,391 young hospitalizations analyzed resulted in a death, quoting February's  Pediatrics , released today. "Every day, 20 of our children are hospitalized for firearms injury, often suffering severe and costly injuries, clearly shows that this is a national public health problem," Robert Sege, director of the Division of Family and Child Advocacy at Boston Medical Center and a co-author of the study, tells Healy. I don't know about you but I have a horrifying thing to say.  I am becoming numb to all the mass murders and drive-by shootings of innocent children who ju...

Two frightening new studies : the closer one is socially to a homicide victim, the higher your chances of being shot, too. I suppose that makes sense.  If the people you hang with and around have guns, it's far more likely you'll be the victim of violence than a little old lady sitting in church. "For every degree of separation from a victim, an individual would experience a 57 percent decrease in their odds of homicide victimization," newswise.com reports. "In addition 41 percent of all gun homicides occurred within less than 4 percent of the neighborhood’s population." “By mapping the terrain within high-risk social networks and analyzing shooting patterns, network analysis offers a more direct road map for interventions," newswise.com quotes the study authors. The researchers argue against "sweeping policies and practices based on categorical distinctions such as gang membership or race," and, instead, focus on intervention and prevent...

This probably won't come as a surprise to very many, but did you know that 25% of young people injured in assaults own guns ? According to Michelle Healy at usatoday.com, "Among young people ages 14 to 24 who received care in a hospital emergency department for assault-related injuries, 23% said they owned a firearm in the past six months." Even worse, only 17% of those who said they owned guns got them legally, says the report, in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics , published online today, Healy reports. Almost 700 young people who sought care at a major trauma center in Flint, Mich., were surveyed by the  University of Michigan Injury Center for the study.  About 14% were younger than age 18, and "32% had children of their own," Healy notes the shocking facts. Not surprisingly, "those with firearms were more likely to use illegal drugs, have been involved in a serious fight, and to endorse the position that 'revenge was a good thing...

Who on earth would give a 5-year-old a rifle for his birthday?  All you gun zealots out there, do you still believe guns should be available to anyone? I couldn't believe this when I heard that this young boy had accidentally -- accidentally -- shot and killed his 2-year-old sister. Of course it was an accident but what moron gave this child a gun -- and put bullets in it? I'm tired of all my ranting and raving about gun control, and am totally brokenhearted that Obama didn't call in favors or do some strong-arming of Congress to get even the watered-down background check bill passed. How could he miss this opportunity?  One that probably won't come up again for another 20 years, based on our yellow-bellied senators. I also couldn't believe that any sane man or woman would put a donor's dollars ahead of a child's life.  But I guess I was naive.  Not just one did it, over 50 did.  What would they say now to this child's parents?  I heard the grandp...

So they're coming together.  The Democrats and Republicans have finally found an issue on which they can both agree when it comes to gun control.  Mental health. Whoopee. While there's no doubt that mentally ill people are the ones behind these horrendous mass killings, that still doesn't do anything about the fact that they can get their hands on weapons in the first place.  For all the celebrating (me, included) on just getting a gun control bill to the floor for debate, really, how far have we come to our goal? Saturday Night Live last night did a very funny (and, to me, heartbreaking) opener on just what's been agreed to so far, and for all the laughs and elbow nudging, the comics playing the two senators who triumped over recalcitrant GOP members to allow the bill to be debated, there was a sad, sad truth. As the comedians played to laughs that Domino's would no longer be able to give away free rifles with pizzas, or allow people to shoo...

Now that more information about Adam Lanza and the Newtown massacre are about to hit the airwaves, how much do we really need to know? Make that, want to know. That he fired 155 bullets in less than five minutes, according to NBC News?  That he fired 154 of those bullets from his assault rifle and just one (to kill himself) from a handgun? And big surprise, that he had a certificate from, or was a member of, the National Rifle Association?  All these facts came out today at a press conference held by the chief prosecutor investigating the slaughter. So, does this make any of us feel better?  We sort of knew the main outline from all the newscasts.  This is just shedding a little more light (if there is any light to Adam Lanza).  We also learned just last week that he had a seven-foot spreadsheet of all the mass killings of recent years. But does this help us make any more sense of this horrific crime?  Not for me.  We always knew this kid w...

I was astounded to read over the weekend that Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy -- remember Newtown? -- feels all gun owners, including the mentally ill who could harm others or themselves, should be allowed to keep all their guns, including assault rifles and those which carry magazines with more than 10 bullets. What?!  The New York Times also reported today that even in states where women know their exes have guns and will come after them still do not confiscate the guns. I realize this is what the pro-gun lobby is so terrified about.  Relinquishing their rifles.  But do they truly want to be in the next theater that's sprayed with bullets as they watch the latest Disney release? (A quick side note -- three of five homicides in the U.S. are people committing suicide.  Sadly, the mentally ill often figure here.)   I believe in personal freedom.  That women should have the right to their bodies, and abortion.  That people be allowed to drink Big Gulps...

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I heard today that the VA is refusing to honor the part of the healthcare law that requres them to release the names of those they consider likely to hurt themselves or others. Part of me thinks, I sure hope I'm not around when that PTSD-crazed vet starts emptying his assault rifle at ShopRite. Yet, as someone who saw a therapist for marriage and other counseling, I'm not so sure I'd want my name swirling around out there, either. The provision is set to take effect Saturday. It's a very delicate balance.  We all deserve to be protected from those who might hurt us, or themselves. But shouldn't our most fragile veterans also be protected from having their very personal information released? I'd love to hear your opinion. It's so hard because Newtown is still taking up a lot of space in my brain.  http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/va-refuses-to-follow-n-y-gun-law/?cat_orig=us

In a staggering (to me, at least) front-page story in the New York Times today, the presence of guns in homes in this country has declined precipitously. The rate of those who keep guns in their homes is now at 34%, down from 50% in the '70s, the article notes -- in complete contradiction to reports of guns flying off shelves in the wake of the killings of 20 children in Newtown last year, dozens at a movie theater in Aurora, CO, and last month's shooting spree by a former cop in California. So why do I not feel better? Maybe because women are now jumping into the game, too. According to Billy Hallowell, "In a survey last year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation , 73 percent of gun dealers said the number of female customers had gone up in 2011, as had a majority of retailers surveyed in the two previous years," rising from 13% in 2005 to 23% in 2011, as reported in a Gallup poll. KGET.com adds that gun makers are taking notice, "creating everything ...

I don't know if I can feel any sicker about what happened at Sandy Hook. But an AP story in yesterday's Advocate (Stamford, CT) notes that Sturm Ruger is "having trouble keeping up with demand for guns." Some stories also point out that guns are good for your stock portfolio. Net sales for Ruger increased 34% to $141.8 million, from $93.2 million, according to Rob Varnon.  Want to feel even more nauseous?  Varnon reports that earnings rose 77% over 2011. Now, before you gun owners start shouting at me, you certainly have a right to buy a gun.  I get that.  But do you really need an assault rifle to shoot a deer?  I have a friend who yesterday said it's not guns that kill people, it's lunatics. But once again I say, just where do these lunatics get the guns? I'm heartbroken to read that the best Congress can do, after everything that has happened, is put in place background checks.  I read yesterday that the GOP, at first agreeing with this, now wan...

In a city in Connecticut, a board of education dismissed panic buttons for teachers in favor of doors that lock. Some classrooms in Stamford schools have them; others don't, according to a column by Angela Carella in The Advocate.  Some lock from the outside, so custodians can more easily unlock them to clean, while others can only be opened from the inside. The superintendent wants to change all the doors to inside locks. And while that's certainly a laudable goal, is it really going to save anyone in the next school massacre? Adam Lanza shot through the doors, though he missed, according to sources. But what's to prevent a biggger thug from breaking down the doors? I admit, I don't know what's right anymore.  I never thought I would have to think about whether I'd ever see my son again when I sent him to school in the morning.  True, he's in middle school, but what about kids bringing guns to school, as happened in the Bronx last week, or fooling aro...

No matter where you stand on gun control, not many would disagree that children who are showing signs of violent temper and anger shouldn't be in some kind of psychotherapy. But the sad -- and frightening -- news is that only 20% of  kids needing therapy get it, according to Ed Stannard of the New Haven Register. So even if Adam Lanza or his mother wanted to seek help for him, they'd have had a hard time finding it. Stannard says it's not just Connecticut, but nationwide there's a shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists to treat kids. And of those who do, few take insurance, so you're looking at $200 or $300 for one hour of counseling, and who can afford that on a regular basis? It's good that President Obama is stepping up to the plate on mental health and gun violence.  But more needs to be done before we have Newtown Redux, and sadly, we will. http://middletownpress.com/articles/2013/01/20/news/doc50fb74b4bbd59107605012.txt

So what do you think about guns in school?  I'm not talking about criminals, of course, but armed guards.  My town in Connecticut is considering police in the schools and I'm against it, according to our local newspaper, The Advocate.  I'm all for gun control.  I don't believe that having a gun helps anyone.  You're far more likely to be shot (and killed) by the intruder if you have one in your house. http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/default/article/Is-putting-armed-guards-in-schools-a-good-idea-4225936.php Now all you hunters out there, don't gang up on me.  I have nothing against guns for sport, but I don't believe you need an assault rifle to hunt a deer (which I also don't believe in, but anyway).  We've heard all the arguments -- start with the assault rifles and all guns will be next, the Second Amendment guarantees our right (they were talking about muskets, not AR-15s), , yah, yah, yah. But it's a slippery slope. Who's to say a d...

OK, so we've heard all the back-and-forth between presidential and legislative forces and the NRA.  Make all gun buyers and owners register.  No weapons sold to those with mental health conditions, as recommended by healthcare professionals.  And my favorite: armed guards at schools.  Puhleeze. But Kaiser News reports that children, teens and young adults, and their mental health -- along with the teachers, counselors and therapists who could spot problems before they happen -- are a big part of President Obama's gun plan. Spoiler alert:  I live about 20 miles from Newtown and this crime has struck me far more than any other "mass shooting." (I remember my shock when Colin Ferguson entered the Long Island train and began shooting and I thought then, what is the world coming to.)  And when mass shootings referred to war, and  wasn't a common phrase in our language. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/January/17/mental-health-gun-control...