NBA teams LA Clippers and Milwaukie Bucks wore “ENOUGH” t-shirts to warm up for their game on Saturday. This was in response to the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California that left 12 people dead, and 21 wounded. On the back of the t-shirts the victims’ names were listed.

ENOUGH. pic.twitter.com/YPgZKXXZnN

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) November 10, 2018

It’s a horrible, heinous crime that was committed at the Borderline Bar. As we are finding out, as we frequently do, it was the shooter who was borderline. No joke is intended here; mental illness is thought to be a contributing factor in this criminal act. These outrageous acts of violence aimed at unarmed innocents must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, and people with mental illness need to be helped.

But not all people who commit mass murder have mental illness. So superficial analysts tend to go straight for the guns. The argument is that if guns were removed from society then there would be no shootings. Well, yes that’s true. How do they propose to do this? They have no clue. It is an impossible proposition.

“We believe [gun violence] is something that needs to be brought up and gotten under control,” Clippers forward Tobias Harris said. “For our own nation, people have to get more aware of [gun issues]. Personally, my condolences go out to the families, and everyone that lost loved ones, my prayers go out to them. But at the end of the day, action has to be taken from this because there can only be so many prayers and so many condolences.”

So perhaps stronger laws will at least help? This happened in California, a state with some of the strongest gun laws in the country (in fact it joins with the cities of Chicago and DC, that have strong gun laws but also have inordinate levels of gun violence). This should be ENOUGH proof to show reasonable people that perhaps other solutions should be explored. Because they refuse to accept this fact, it is clear they are using these arguments as a premise to simply remove gun ownership from a society uniquely protected by the Second Amendment.

The only thing that will reduce mass shootings (even those stemming from mental illness, but that makes things a little more complex) is a change in culture. As illustrated by the Parkland shooting, most shooters show lots of signs of being dangerous. Most people don’t want to believe what they are seeing so they ignore it or downplay the red flags. If we want to have a chance of reducing reprehensible behavior then we have to take back responsibility for our own lives and not hope the next person will step in and do something. It has to be you, and it has to be me.

This approach is not easy. It requires courage. And it requires a willingness to be wrong and be embarrassed if the situation is not as you think it is. The person may be mad at you. But it is likely that if concerns are raised, there is something that needs attention in that person’s life. Unless we become more connected as individuals, and stop relying on the state to take care of all our ills, we will continue to ask these questions – after another mass murder.

These NBA basketball players are right. This is ENOUGH. Enough of continuing to focus on the non-problem. Enough turning away from icky people and hoping they can be someone else’s problem. These people who do these things were once innocents at some point, and for whatever reason they took the wrong path. Nobody stopped them or got them some help before it was too late. That is ENOUGH. Step up and heal this society.

Featured photo: EPSN

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