It fascinates me that whenever there is a shooting, soon after the debate centers around guns: how controlling guns properly would have prevented the tragedy.

There is another key piece here that no one seems to talk about. Drugs. I am not talking about illegal drugs, but the prescription drugs. Antidepressant and widely prescribed drugs have side effects such as suicidal tendencies. Dr. Peter Breggin, a critic of these antidepressants, says, “These drugs produce a stimulant or activation continuum …. That continuum includes aggression, hostility, loss of impulse control … all of which are a prescription for violence.”

Should we not look at this sides of the issue? I realize the large drug companies don’t want us to focus on this. And the gun-control crowd doesn’t want to let a good crisis go to waste in its effort to control guns. But let’s look at the causes here; maybe, just maybe, better control and monitoring of folks on these types of drugs would help prevent these situations from occurring.

Randall R. Stewart

Chapin