Gun buyback funds not a formal offer from the Law Enforcement Foundation
Dear Editor,
While the Community Law Enforcement Foundation’s mission is to improve public safety in the Morgan Hill community, we noticed that the current Morgan Hill Times poll incorrectly states that we have offered to fund a gun buyback program for the city.
The Foundation works closely with the administration at the police department to select the opportunities where our funding can provide the most positive effect on the community and at this time a gun buyback program has not been formally discussed nor approved.
For a list of those programs and purchases that we have approved and funded, please visit our website at www.morganhillclef.org.
Sharron Daniel, CLEF Treasurer
James Keen, CLEF President
Editor’s Note: It is our understanding that, while a formal CLEF vote for approval was not taken, the Morgan Hill Police Department was clearly made aware of the possibility and opted not to pursue it. Thus, the poll question.
Don’t blame video games for Sandy Hook, but funds for mental health critical
Dear Editor,
Sandy Hook was not the result of violent video games as Jeff Nunes suggests. To date there is no correlation between video games and violence as so considered and decided by the Supreme Court when it struck down California’s ban on the sale of violent video games to minors in 2011.
While Jeff says, it “doesn’t take a team of scientists to recognize some correlation”, he is correct; it only takes one misguided attorney. It is regrettable for anyone to take a personal observation and generalize. We all do it, but it is wrong.
When we see a Latino, rob a bank, it would be wrong to correlate that all Latinos are bank robbers. Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook killer, was home schooled, and a product of a divorced family. Can we make correlations here as well? Some would. We take what we experience, see, hear and make judgments. But these judgments are ours alone, we own them and we can’t give them to someone else.
The only way we can confirm our thoughts or fears is with empirical studies, sound methodology and good analysis. My issue is not only with Jeff but with so many others, who make statements without collaborative data, conjure false conclusions and then promote them as fact.
While Jeff was appalled at seeing adults bringing children into a horrifically violent film like Django, I wondered why Jeff was there. If I follow his theory, after watching the movie, he should have grabbed a gun or a knife and become violent but he didn’t, so why would he think others would?
Research also indicates that video game use is not a common factor among mass homicide perpetrators. Some have been players, others have not. Some would like to think that Adam Lanza became aggressive because of video games. The research indicates that high stressed and aggressive children are actually drawn into video games and those behavioral issues where present long before.
I would agree with Jeff that our mental health system is broken. The issue with Lanza and others is that his problems were not treated or treated poorly. Parents with children with behavioral issues are often in denial, excusing such problems as a growing phase. Schools are ill equipped to handle such issues let alone able to identify them. Teachers, administrators and trustees lack training, and competencies. Giving teachers guns, children bullet proof backpacks and having armed officers walk the hallways is wasted time and resources. Addressing behavioral issues long before the child becomes a violent adult is really the key.
When children mental health issues are identified, it is important to involve and treat the whole family. Children with behavioral issues often have parents and siblings with similar or other contributing factors such as sexual and substance abuse, poverty, domestic violence, learning disabilities, etc.
The child will not succeed if those issues are unresolved. In California, we had AB 3632 which funded a collaborative approach to children’s mental health (Health, Mental Health, Social Services, Education and Probation). In 2010 our great Republican Gov. Schwarzenegger suspended such services. Good grief!
Mr. Nunes would have you believe that keeping children away from violent movies and video games is necessary to prevent another Sandy Hook. I wish it was that simple, but there is no supportive research, and to make such statements with the prevalence of contrary information intentionally misleads.
To address such tragedies we need to fully fund a system of care that identifies children with mental illness and provide them and their families with the professional assistance they need.
Mark Grzan, Morgan Hill
