Dear President Trump: Thank You for Calling Nikolas Cruz a “Sicko”

From CNN:

The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, struggled with depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, according to a 2016 Florida Department of Children and Families report. But having a mental health diagnosis does not mean he would become violent, many experts say. And although Trump has said he wants to focus on mental health to stop school shootings, calling Cruz a “sicko” doesn’t help, those experts claim.

Which experts?

I am a mental health professional. I do not think it’s unhelpful to call a spade a spade.

A central principle of mental health is naming the truth. In dysfunctional families, people walk on eggshells and refuse to call things what they are. That’s how alcoholics, drug abusers, sexual abusers and emotional abusers get away with so much. If people named the truth, the problems would stop.

The “experts” who claim Nikolas Cruz should not be referred to as a “sicko” wish us to believe he had no control over his actions. Whatever mental disorder he had, we’re told, excuses him of responsibility for his actions. It’s as if the mental illness has a life and a will of its own, operating completely outside of the person who chooses to pick up the gun and start shooting.

I find this interesting. The same people who criticize President Trump for calling Nikolas Cruz a “sicko” are the very same ones who want gun control. They fantasize that by banning guns, people like Nikolas Cruz will not choose to buy them and shoot people with them. Yet if there is a choice involved, and that choice therefore warrants gun control, then why is it wrong to call the killer what he obviously is?

It’s all part of our disingenuous and insane society. We live in a time when “experts” say shooters like Nikolas Cruz have no choice, control or responsibility over their actions while, in total contradiction, we must take away their guns.

Mercy to the guilty means cruelty to the innocent. Criticizing President Trump for calling Nikolas Cruz a “sicko” lumps Cruz in with other suffering, troubled, depressed/ADHD/autistic persons who would never consider opening fire on a crowd of innocent fellow students.

Whatever mental illness may be present in the mind of a Nikolas Cruz, you can better believe it’s a whole lot more than mental illness. It’s called evil.

And as usual, President Trump takes the hit for stating the obvious. He calls a spade a spade in a world where the “experts” have stopped acknowledging facts and reality.