I know – the last thing we need is one more Sunday morning blogger claiming to have the answer for why the US has recently had more mass killings than any country in the developed world.
But there’s one more thing the US does better than everyone else – it’s something that isn’t getting much air time as we scratch our heads and try to figure out WTF’s happening. While I don’t think the argument I’ll be dumping in your lap this morning is a slam dunk solution to our problem, it at least deserves a seat at the table.
According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, the numbers of children dying from abuse/maltreatment have been steadily increasing in the US. According to UNICEF, we’re second only to Mexico in the number of children who die each year as a direct result of maltreatment at the hands of a parent of guardian.
In a nutshell, we’re really good at child abuse.
And there’s no shortage of research linking child abuse to all manner of mental/social disorders, especially the ones that put a person at risk for buying an assault rifle and doing something bad with it.
I don’t think the problem is with our kids, I think it’s with us. Why are we so regularly beating, sexually assaulting, neglecting, and screaming at our kids?
“The challenge of ending child abuse is the challenge of breaking the link between adults’ problems and children’s pain.”
from UNICEF’s Global Child Maltreatment Report 2003
Continue reading Is it Assault Rifles and Mental Illness – or a Simple Retaliation Issue?