That tragedy in Minneapolis, where two children were killed, and fourteen other kids and 3 elderly adults were injured, could have been prevented or at least greatly minimized if only the five-year-olds who were attending mass were allowed to conceal carry. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good toddler with a gun.

Of course, that’s a crazy idea. But is it any dumber than doing nothing to help prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place?

The go-to response from the politicians beholden to the gun lobby is they offer thoughts and prayers. Those children were literally praying at the time of the cold-blooded murders.

For over thirty years, I have made a living commenting on the news of the day. After a while, it gets harder and harder to say anything new or impactful about carnage like this.

But I’m going to try.

Political cartoonist Jeff Koterba is a good friend of mine. We’ve had many discussions over the years about how to address these mass shootings without being trite or clichéd. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This time around, Jeff drew a young, scared girl holding desperately onto the leg of her mother with the caption, “But where can I pray for the victims that’s safe?”

Powerful stuff. But I fear it won’t do any good, just as this column won’t do any good unless something is actually done to try to prevent these things from happening again and again and again.

I’m not naïve enough to think there is any law or restriction that will stop these mass murders from happening entirely. In fact, Minnesota has more stringent gun laws than many states. But is it too much to ask that more be done to stem the tide? Is it too much to ask for better access to mental health? Tougher penalties for people who illegally supply guns to someone who commits a heinous act like this? Can we at least discuss other possible solutions besides the old, tried and true phrases that both the pro and anti-gun lobbyists use?

Occasionally, some sensible laws are enacted. In 1994, under the Clinton administration, restrictions on assault rifles were enacted. That law had a sunset clause, and ten years later, the gun lobbyists were able to make military grade weapons available to civilians again.

In 2017, a lone gunman in Las Vegas used a bump stock to turn a semiautomatic weapon into a weapon like a machine gun. Machine guns were outlawed in 1934 with the National Firearms Act. This modified weapon killed 58 people.

President Trump then banned bump stocks, but that didn’t last long. In June of 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks did not meet the same criteria as machine guns and therefore the states, and not the federal government, should regulate them.

There’s not a 100% solution to solve this gun problem, but maybe there are a hundred 1% solutions. Let’s start with one that gun owners, anti-Second Amendment supporters, and the courts should all be able to agree on.

We need to do a better job with mental health care in America!

This deranged shooter, in fact, all of the mass murderers, have dealt with severe mental health problems. In many cases, family and friends knew about their problems, but there was nowhere to go to get help.

Now granted, not everyone with a mental health issue commits murder, but they do cause many other societal problems like homelessness, domestic violence, suicide, and addiction.

In years past, when one of these tragedies happened, politicians gave lip service to doing something about the mental health crisis, but little to nothing was ever done to try to solve it.

I’m not optimistic considering the current political climate that anything will change anytime soon.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t try.

Talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words. It is my hope that if enough people speak out, the politicians will listen, and instead of spending money on prisons and homeless shelters, they will spend more on mental health to help citizens stay out of those places.

The NRA has convinced millions of people that more guns are the answer to gun violence. The evidence would prove otherwise.

Let’s seriously attempt to improve the mental health conditions in our country to make America a safer, more secure place, because if the mental health pandemic continues, over time, arming toddlers with handguns might not seem so crazy after all.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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