What is wrong with our country?

There is something wrong with our country. It’s something fundamental, something unseen, yet it is there nonetheless. It could be right there in front of us, yet it remains invisible to the naked eye.

Whatever it is, it is producing monsters — monsters in the form of gunmen, alone or in one case a pair of them, that come to our schools, shopping malls and movie theaters, and in the latest horror, the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.

They stalk the halls of a school or burst into a building and begin shooting innocents. I’m talking about the tragic mass shootings plaguing the nation. It appears to be a sad and unique part of American society.

When I say unique, I mean that most of these horrors took place here in this country. There are one or two exceptions. This type of crime is very rare in other countries. It seems to be an American happening. Most of the shooters were Americans, most young — under 30 — and with few exceptions, mentally unstable.

Yet there is something more to this. What possesses a person to obtain body armor, weapons and ammunition to fulfill a mission of dealing death to innocent men, women and children (not to mention themselves in the process of a twisted mass murder/suicide plo)? Only a couple of these people have lived to face justice. Most went on to face a judge of a higher plain in a blaze of bullets or self-inflicted single shots.

What is causing this? We must seek answers, and that may be easier said than done. We are becoming blasé about it, numb to it as a new attack seems to happen every few months from the last one. Many just heave a sigh and go about their lives, seemingly more interested in the latest cellphone or SUV. Others who want to do something about it are shouted down by those who feel nothing can be done and should never let others to even talk about it, largely in part of a fear that their Second Amendment right to bear arms will be taken away.

Some believe the root cause is godlessness. Others believe there are differing reasons such as mental insanity. While I do not agree with the godlessness charge, I do find merit on the issue of mental stability, or a lack of it to be precise. But it is not the only issue that is on the table. I believe it is a combination of all or most of the issues being raised, plus the hidden one that has been so elusive to track down.

The are several groups of gun right advocates spreading rumors that the current administration is out to confiscate their weapons in order to foster a feeling of fear. These are just rumors with no basis in reality or fact. Well, there is one true fact about them, and that’s the huge profits made by gun shop owners and weapons manufacturers during the panic buying of a public suckered into them. A sad state to be sure. Those who believed them were — for lack of a better term and can be summed up all in one word — suckered.

We must do something to stem this murderous tide of madness. Making things harder for those with mental problems from obtaining a weapon is one. Backgrounds must be checked with each purchase. A national standard must be implemented, loopholes closed and existing laws beefed up.

Then we should check on the state of our nation’s mentality. I believe this is a good place to start in order to find that missing piece of the puzzle. If we can find it, we can deal with it. And maybe, just maybe, we can stem the tide, find a workable solution or solutions that protect us not only from monsters like this, but also protect our constitutional rights as well. To do nothing would add only insult to the injuries and death the victims have sustained in the senseless violence of these attacks. They cannot be ignored or wished away.

It will not be an easy task, especially under the spotlight of so much polarizing rhetoric and politics that have blurred to whole point of it all to near invisibility. That must stop. The Second Amendment is vital right of all Americans, yet it bears a great deal of responsibility as well. That has been lacking as of late. From gun owners to weapons manufacturers and the everyday American citizen, we all bear this burden together no matter if one owns a weapon or not. The time is now to own up to that fact.

Something is wrong with our nation. What is it? That is the question. I do not know the answer to it. I’m just putting it out there for others to ponder in the thin hope a commonsense solution can be found to this national horror vexing us — a hope to finally end it.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.