The last few days, perhaps the most talked abt/well known Supreme Court case in our land, Roe v Wade, took center stage bc of the major changes enacted.
Of course that vote had & will have a massive impact on millions arnd our country/world. It’s not surprising then, that the passing of a bipartisan law related to guns & mental health, took a back seat in the media, to the Roe decision.
But, some major things to consider:
-This is the first significant gun legislation signed into policy in not years, but decades.
– In a country torn apart by partisanship (lead by our politicians) it’s HUGE news that a bipartisan deal was struck.
– It’s also enormous that mental health received more funding & consideration, as part of the bill.
Here’s the problem I wanted to point out for this post: I dare you to go to the search engines & find some/many/any articles in major publications that talk abt mental health in the headlines. If there were many, you’d see them here. There weren’t. Gun control was almost exclusively what was talked abt.
There are so many reasons why: what gets the most eyeballs…what turns the most pages…what fuels partisanship & divides – even w the news being abt a bipartisan deal!!
Sadly, MH isn’t sexy. When it’s talked abt, WITH gun control, it’s an admittance that’s it’s part of the equation in these tragic shootings. I was fortunate to find some of the details (slides➡️) about the finer points of the deal. Red flag laws relate TO mental health. But this isn’t what makes the headlines.
Not everyone got what they “wanted”…but I’m happy to see compromise in SOME sense – stricter guns laws AND changes & funding arnd MH.
At a time our country is torn apart on Roe, let’s celebrate positive change that’s happening on other bills – even if the media doesn’t appropriately represent that positive change. If they won’t share, we need to.