First; Do no harm...
The first and arguably the most essential portion of the Hippocratic Oath appears in the title of this piece. Though retired, Ben Carson (I refuse to call him “Dr.”) seems to forget that he was a medical practitioner and bound by this oath, yet he continues to utter inconceivably horrible statements about the ACA being worse than slavery, that being Gay is a choice not a complex of desires and feelings, and now in his inimitable fashion has weighed in on the recent shootings on a college campus.
He maintains that it is easier to, “…maneuver in the political world (than it is) in the operating room inside somebody’s brain.” I’m with him so far, but then he veers off by further suggesting that we should, “…collect data on shooters to find ‘early warnings’ to prevent future cases, not stricter gun laws.”
In this he shows his complete ignorance with the extensive research and data collection that has done precisely that. What he has missed in his failure to read any of this data, is that that vast majority of individuals with mental health issues rarely commit acts of violence, and not every mass murderer of late has had a recognized mental illness. The researchers agree on one thing; there is no clearcut profile of a “school shooter” or “church shooter” or “mall shooter”, for the literally thousands of oddballs one would avoid walking down the street, only a small percent actually act out their inner turmoil.
How do you know which one of the thousands will commit a crime, and more importantly what is a free society to do about it? Incarcerate them all? And how about the one’s that seem perfectly normal, content, well-adjusted that commit horrible crimes? How do you spot them? How do we protect ourselves?
It’s clear that Ben Carson has not considered any of this research, instead he spouts off about how to prevent these acts of violence only demonstrating his sheer ignorance. Suggesting that every teacher should be armed, carrying loaded weapons into our classrooms where it only takes one mistake to lead to catastrophic consequences only adds to the mounting evidence that this man’s ignorance is quite significant.
But the best example of his failure to think things through, or to consider the consequences; the pain, the suffering of loved ones who were lost in gunfire with bullets ripping through their bodies is his statement that, “…a body with bullet holes is less devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.” First do no harm. His complete lack of empathy for gunshot victims including those killed and wounded not to mention their partners, their children, their parents, their relatives, their friends, their co-workers. This guy simply does not get it. Understand now why I won’t pay him the respect of calling him “Dr.”?