Blood dancing around the issues

There's not much you can say about evil.

It's real.

It's everywhere.

Evil IS.

Nothing will change that.

Sunday's horrific mass murders at a gigantic outdoor country music event in Las Vegas qualifies as an act of unspeakable evil perpetrated by a single man.

As a husband, father, brother, and son, I hurt for everyone mourning a loss. Beyond that, words fail.

But I have plenty I'd like to say about the comments that followed the shooting by politicians with no hesitation to use this evil act to push their political agenda.

They're tiresome. They're hacks. And they continue pushing an agenda they know will continue to divide the country. For them, it's just another crisis they can't allow to go to waste.

So, from Twitter and Facebook to their inevitable talking heads on television, the "usual suspects" lined up to sound off.

In record time (even for them) both Clintons checked in.

The former President Bill tweeted that Sunday's shooting "should be unimaginable in America."

Hillary took her first shot at the hearing protection bill, tweeting "The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get."

She also tweeted "grief wasn't enough" and that it was time to "put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to stop this from happening again."

It seems that from Mrs. Clinton's perspective, grief wasn't a consideration, leaving ruthless ambition and tone deafness as two of her most identifiable characteristics.

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut didn't waste time with tact. He says it's "time for Congress to get off its ass and do something."

For once, we agree. Congress does need to do something.

We just fundamentally disagree as to what the "it" is Congress should do something about.

Murphy thinks guns are the problem. I think it's mental illness. And that, unfortunately, remains one of two core problems Congress absolutely refuses to recognize, much less address. The other is crime, and like it or not, they're linked.

Gun control proponents use emotion as misdirection. It helps them work around the inconvenient truth that neither the NRA or its several million members had anything to do with what happened in Las Vegas.

On Sunday night, millions of law-abiding gun owners went to bed without having shot anyone or committed a crime.

They woke up Monday morning being demonized - again- for a tragedy inflicted by a single person.

Now is not a time for finger-pointing or political grandstanding. It's time to mourn innocent lives lost and for recognizing the heroic acts of first responders and others. Their selfless acts kept the toll from going higher.

But the instant that mourning period ends, I agree with Murphy that it's time for gun owners, not gun banners to demand that Congress to "get off its ass and do something."

But gun owners need to demand that Congress take substantive steps to deal with the very real and inextricably linked problems of mental illness and crime.

When Las Vegas County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said "I can't get into the mind of a psychopath" he summed up the frustration faced by police and health care professionals across the country.

Not only can they not get into the minds of the unstable, they're prohibited in many cases from doing anything about people already known to be threats to themselves and others.

This is Suicide Prevention Month, and it's time for all gun organizations to join the National Shooting Sports Foundation in their campaign to make everyone on both sides of the "gun question" aware that we have a serious problem in this country that needs to be recognized and addressed.

Demonizing average gun while and ignoring those struggling with real demons won't help prevent tragedy, but learning how to recognize symptoms and removing the fears of acting on those signals could save lives.

To me, that would be a positive step everyone should be proud to take.

Republished from The Outdoor Wire.