Consideration of Tragic News in Connecticut

    On December 14, twenty children and six adults were shot and killed by Adam Peter Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Before driving to the school, he had shot and killed his mother. After killing many children and adults, he shot and killed himself. This was tragic news and gave a shock throughout U.S. Many people have been trying to get to the root of this tragic affair. Some people say that we should stricken gun control. Other people say that we should stricken violent video games. Some people say that we should enhance psychological treatment.
   I agree with these opinions, especially on gun control. U.S. citizens are allowed to have guns to defend themselves. However, many people use guns for the wrong propose; moreover, people have been killing innocent people accidentally. In Japan, people are not allowed to own guns except for police. I know that even if guns are prohibited by law, there are still many deadly weapons in our society. However, I believe that the prohibiting ownership of guns reduces problems significantly. For example, many people have bad days and good days in our life. Some people feel too stressed out from various reasons. When a person possesses a gun in a situation where the person suffers from something unbearable, the gun may potentially become a temptation to escape reality. I can easily imagine that person under pressure may possibly use the gun for the wrong propose. Because using a gun is much easier than any other deadly weapons, owning a gun is huge problem. Another example is mental illness. I was working for a psychiatric hospital for three years in Japan, and I knew my patients' episodes. In many cases, after having a big trouble with people such as neighbors, they were forced into a psychiatric hospital. Before hospitalizing, some patients always had carried knives to defend themselves because they had been apprehensive that someone was coming after them trying to kill them. Even though nobody was trying to kill them, their fear had been incredibly real and serious from obsession. If they had been allowed to have a gun, they could have possibly killed somebody because of their obsession. People usually don't recognize the psychiatric problem until the accident occurs. Enforcing psychiatric treatment is good idea, but it is not easy and it takes time. Thus, I think prohibiting a gun is top priority.

   Today's Vocabulary
・ tragic affair : 悲劇的事件
・ ownership : noun / 所有権、所有、所有者［持ち主］であること
・ possess : verb / 〔財産などとして物を〕所有［保有］する
・ unbearable : adjective / 耐えられない、忍びがたい、我慢できない、気に食わない、鼻持ちならない 
・ temptation : noun / 誘惑、衝動、誘惑物
     ex) The temptation is to look for a quick solution. : どうしても即効性のある解決策を求めようとしてしまう。 
・ apprehensive : adjective / 恐れている、危惧している
・ obsession : noun / 

1. 〔頭から離れない〕強迫観念、妄想
2. 〔人が強迫観念に〕取り憑かれていること