I spent my 18th birthday in a psychiatric unit. I have never had a sadder birthday, although my life hasn't considerably improved since then. If anything, my prospects are bleaker than ever. To weather perpetual despair is not happiness.
I am also bullied every day and everywhere, but I haven't tried to buy a gun, legally or illegally, to take revenge on even one of the people whose vicious lies and crimes against me have made my life so painful for no reason.
Nobody has the right to conflate gun violence with mental illness, a diagnosis of mental illness, or with being the recipient of mental health care.
The only way to stop gun violence is to have a total ban on all gun sales. I know that there are people who will disagree with me about that, but I won't try to shoot them, either.
I don't need a gun to get my point across. I don't always win, but neither do people who have guns.
Copyright L. Kochman, October 5, 2017 @ 4:35 p.m.
