Mental health care system is broken

In light of the most recent events of the past two weeks, we once again find ourselves questioning how such tragic and senseless events, as the mass shootings experienced at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Laguna Woods Church in California, and most recently, Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, continue to occur in this day and age.

Calls for enhanced and stringent gun control laws are louder now than ever before, I too, agree that greater gun control is in order. However, if we truly want to eradicate these senseless murders, we must acknowledge and fully understand that our mental health care system is broken, not just here in New York, but throughout our nation, and there lies the root of these mass shootings.

Until such time we recognize that our mental health care system is in crisis, and we start reinvesting toward building a robust and responsive mental health care system, then and only then, will we have a fighting chance toward eliminating these senseless acts of violence, that continue to be perpetrated against our children and our communities. It is truly the duty of each and every one of us to implore that our elected officials start spending our tax dollars on the real issues affecting our daily lives.

Simply taking guns away from people will not deter the illness that causes them to act out so violently against others. If it’s not a gun, it will be some other deadly instrument that will be used to inflict their reign of terror.

Joseph Sinagra, Saugerties. The writer is the police chief of the town of Saugerties.