Can you imagine having to worry about being shot by your elderly parent or fearing that one day they may shoot a neighbour or health care professional trying to help them?!

An article in the New York Times: Guns in Frail Hands addresses the challenges that caregivers and caregiving agencies face in the U.S. when an elderly person with dementia refuses to surrender their gun(s). Caregivers in the U.S. also worry that a loved one with a gun, when faced with declining health, may be more inclined to commit suicide.

Reporter Dale Russakoff writes that there are huge implications in “big gun-rights states” where gun ownership is a way of life and “Like cars, guns symbolize independence and individualism to many Americans.”

I'm beginning to think, more and more, that independence is an overrated concept that gets a lot of us into trouble. Wouldn't life be a lot easier if we valued inter-dependence more?

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