It is easy to attribute tragedies to inadequate gun control, but doing so overlooks the pronounced link between nontreatment of mental illness and violent acts.
Read the whole thing. I had never heard of the Treatment Advocacy Center before, but they look legit, and don’t appear to be part of the conservative DC establishment. Quite the opposite. So I’m going to suggest the gun control groups aren’t going to be able to legitimately complain these folks are just a bunch of right-wing insurrectionists.
TAC has been working on the problems associated with deinstitutionalization for some time. I’ve had conversations with their people, and they are painfully aware that much of the “gun problem” is really a deinstitutionalization problem.
Ignoring mental health problems is right up there next to lenient treatment of violent felons when it comes to perpetuating crime. The Gifford’s shooting in AZ was an example of both. The guy who shoot all those people was known to the police, his college and his family as a nut job with violent tendencies, and they all looked the other way. Thing is though, locking people up for mental problems is really hard to do, and very expensive.
The guy from Idaho being held for shooting at the White House told his mother that he was Jesus Christ — a common example of schizophrenic delusion, and he is the right age for schizophrenia as well: 21.
Locking people up for mental problems is really hard to do NOW. It did not used to be. Very expensive? Sure. But compared to spending six figures on a trial for murder, and then life in prison, it is downright economical.