Prediction: Fallout of Sandy Hook Shooting Will Affect Mental Health Policies More than Gun Control
The
political response to Friday's horrible shooting at the
Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut has focused first and
foremost on issues related to gun ownership, the Second Amendment,
and gun control. As Jacob Sullum
noted earlier today, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and
President Barack Obama have called for "meaningful action" when it
comes to stopping other mass slaughters. Yet neither seems capable
of outlining exactly what steps regarding gun violence should be
taken or precisely how they will be effective in stopping events
that are thankfully as rare as they are awful. From banning certain
types of guns arbitrarily designated as "assault weapons" to
limiting high-capacity magazines to insisting on better or more
complete federal background checks, it's not clear how such
measures would stop or minimize mass shooters.
On top of that, you can layer a generally positive feeling toward guns and gun rights in the country, recent Supreme Court rulings that substantiate a wider reading of the Second Amendment, and decades-long trend toward liberalization of gun laws around the country. All this adds up to a political reality that will almost certainly minimize any sort of gun-control legislation, no matter how much its proponents push in that direction.
Because of that, I suspect that the real fallout from the Sandy Hook shooting will be in areas related to mental health, especially in terms of increasing funding for various programs to identify and treat people suspected of having issues. The highest-profile mass shootings in recent memory - think of the Aurora, Colorado shooting from the summer, Jared Lee Loughner's 2011 rampage in Arizona, and the Virginia Tech spree by Seung-Hui Cho - all involved people who not only were clearly unbalanced but who had "slipped through the cracks" of the mental health system in one way or another. The Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, also fits this bill, which is simultaneously comforting (these people are nuts) and terrifying (and they walked among us).
Particularly after Loughner's mass shooting,
there were many calls for strengthening policies that would allow
for easier involuntary commitment of people suspected of potential
violence. As the prominent psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey
wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "These tragedies are the
inevitable outcome of five decades of failed mental-health
policies." He continued:
The solution to this situation is obvious—make sure individuals with serious mental illnesses are receiving treatment. The mistake was not in emptying the nation's hospitals but rather in ignoring the treatment needs of the patients being released. Many such patients will take medication voluntarily if it is made available to them. Others are unaware they are sick and should be required by law to receive assisted outpatient treatment, including medication and counseling, as is the case in New York under Kendra's Law. If they do not comply with the court-ordered treatment plan, they can and should be involuntarily admitted to a hospital.
Fuller's basic reaction was widely shared across the political spectrum. Expect it to be revived in a big way in the wake of Lanza's shooting. In Time, Texas A&M's Christopher J. Ferguson, a professor of psychology and criminal justice writes,
Our country’s funding for mental-health services has only gotten worse since the 2008 recession. As the National Alliance on Mental Illness has been warning for some time, the existing level of funding is inadequate, so our nation’s ability to identify and care for the severely mentally ill has been hamstrung.
I think it's far more likely that this sort of argument will find a far warmer reception among legislators and the general public. There's no National Rifle Association pushing back against increasing funding for any and all sorts of interventions into mental health (however broadly that term will be defined). As important, members of Congress will be able to use increased spending on these issues as a way of sending money home to their districts, where parents increasingly define any and all personality tics in their kids as something to be wary of. Only oddball civil libertarians will worry about easing the ability to involuntarily commit people and/or track self-evidently odd people in the classroom and workplace. School officials already have a counseling framework in place that wil readily absorb more staff and money. Mental health and other counseling services will piggyback easily onto the build out of Obamacare.
While I doubt any of that activity will make us safer from mass shootings - such events are so rare it seems highly unlikely that stopping them completely can be accomplished - it will allay many people's understandable fears and anxieties. And a few years down the road, when mass shootings haven't increased (because they haven't been increasing), this sort of action will be given the credit for avoiding another Sandy Hook School shooting.
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Turns out Adam Lanza's mother was one of those nutty paranoid Glenn Beck "End Times" survivalists and only recently began stockpiling guns and food.
The psych community should look into those types.
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You would've fit right in with Stalin's secret police. Oh well, there's always North Korea. Please go there...now.
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Palin's Buttplug| 12.17.12 @ 9:46PM |#
"The psych community should look into those types."Well, no. If there were an obvious candidate for concern, you'd be it long before any 'survivalist'.
Please report to the examination center tomorrow. Or suffer the consequences. -
LOL. You two must have been rooked by one of Beck's looney schemes. Did he get you with the super survivalist seed plans? A set of gold-plated Goldline coins? Or did you just send him cash?
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Hurricane Sandy was one of Beck's loony schemes I'm sure.
He's a crafty fellow, somehow he managed to cause the "prepper" movement long before he even had a public forum, and then conjured a series of horrific disasters that left people fending for themselves for weeks/months to support his push.......
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Quick, which came first...the Mormon religious belief of having a "deep larder" to be prepared or Glenn Beck's conversion to Mormonism?
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Disaster preparation is nothing like the "prepper" movement. If it were I would be a prepper due to some extra batteries I have purchased.
In other words that shit doesn't fly.
Beck is pushing wild UN/Soros/atheist/Muslim takeover of the USA CT bullshit and you know it.
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You know nothing of "preppers". When did you first hear this term? Last weekend? When the sensationalist NatGeo show first aired?
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Palin's Buttplug| 12.17.12 @ 10:27PM |#
"Disaster preparation is nothing like the "prepper" movement. If it were I would be a prepper due to some extra batteries I have purchased."Yeah, someone told you that, right?
Why do you continue to post here proving you're an ignorant asshole? -
Just cut the shit and answer this.
Do you believe that the United Nations/Muslims/atheists/One World types are taking over the USA?
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Do you believe that the United Nations/Muslims/atheists/One World types are taking over the USA?
I don't, do you? But I don't see what you confusing, like the ignorant motherfucker you are, the "militia" movement with the prepping movement has to do with price of rice in China, much less anything else.
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No.
But I do believe I'll need to use my reserves before I die.
Please do us a favor Buttfuck, don't stock up on anything.
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Do you believe that the United Nations/Muslims/atheists/One World types are taking over the USA?
Uh...no. Talk about your schizoid conspiracies.
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My main fear is this nation is being run over by fuckheads who are not much different from that of the fictional character of shrike the sock puppet. That is enough of a reason to prepare for the worst without involving conspiracy theories.
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My main fear
isfor this nation isbeinghaving it over run -
Palin's Buttplug| 12.17.12 @ 10:44PM |#
"Just cut the shit and answer this.
Do you believe that the United Nations/Muslims/atheists/One World types are taking over the USA?"Uh, that's a tough one! Was that you on the grassy knoll?
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It's them thar Moslem Atheists taht ah'm worried aboot!
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Palin's Buttplug| 12.17.12 @ 10:08PM |#
"LOL."
Uh, did Mom call you for dinner?"You two must have been rooked by one of Beck's looney schemes"
No, dipshit. Calling you on your bullshit implies no other activity on my part.
I know this is hard for those with single-digit IQs to grasp; print this out and take it upstairs when you go to dinner. Maybe Mom can explain it slowly enough for you. -
It's a sad day when Americans would rather be the grasshopper laughing at the ant.
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You do realize this whole line of argument is based on a throwaway line from Lanza's aunt recalling a single conversation with his mother.
I can imagine what people would think about my state of mind if all they knew came from my ultra-statist sister who spells out "G-U-N" when my nieces are around, like it's a swear word.
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Is this your sister's family?
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You do realize this whole line of argument is based on a throwaway line from Lanza's aunt recalling a single conversation with his mother
Yep. And the Progs are going to ride this hobbyhorse to Hell until no one dare admit that Obama doesn't care about White people and FEMA is all sweetness and light.
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*isn't
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Heh, lot of good that did her, huh?
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If she was taking her mentally disturbed kid out to train on an AR15, she's crazy. Or was.
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Yep. While I'm trying my best to avoid the news but some leaks through. Sounds like crazy ran in that family.
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Re: Palin's Buttwipe,
urns out Adam Lanza's mother was one of those nutty paranoid Glenn Beck "End Times" survivalists and only recently began stockpiling guns and food.
And rightly so she deserved to be gunned down by her kid!At least, in your mind, if I'm getting where you're going with this irrelevant factoid. By the way, there have been Preppers since a long time, way before Glenn Beck even thought about such things. People used to store canned goods in root cellars for a long time, Buttwipe...
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Turns out Adam Lanza's mother was one of those nutty paranoid Glenn Beck "End Times" survivalists and only recently began stockpiling guns and food.
The psych community should look into those types.
Yes, let's lock people up for having weird political beliefs. I can not imagine how this could possibly lead to anything bad.
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Already called it. Congress can't chip away at the Second Amendment in any significant way (not even with budget reconciliation) but they can go after other amendments they've had previous success rolling over. We can look forward to a push to have people classified as mentally ill being locked up as a way of making society feel safer.
Of course, the reality is that it's impossible to stop all the lunatics. Make peace with that, voters.
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I think it's pretty clear that society would be safer if dangerous nuts were easier to lock up. Most of these recent massacres have been committed by people who seemed obviously crazy enough to have been locked up 50 years ago.
Of course, that won't stop them all, and some non-violent nuts might get locked up as well, so it's a question of what tradeoffs are acceptable.
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I think it's pretty clear that society would be safer if dangerous nuts were easier to lock up.
And your evidence is?
some non-violent nuts might get locked up as well, so it's a question of what tradeoffs are acceptable
Ever think that innocent people, who are not nutty at all, would be locked up as well? Their is not a simple solution where you lock up X people and get Y less mass shootings.
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My evidence is all the massacres committed by dangerous nuts.
Yes, I understand that it is not a simple solution, so there need to be safeguards. In the old days you could get locked up for little or nothing. But contra Tulpa, Holmes, Loughner, and Cho were not "average weirdos." They were all perceived as severely disturbed and even dangerous by people near them.
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Most of these recent massacres have been committed by people who seemed obviously crazy enough to have been locked up 50 years ago.
I dispute that. Holmes, Loughner, and Cho were just average weirdos to all appearances. So far it looks like this guy fits the same profile. Even 50 years ago you had to have some strong reason to involuntarily commit someone to a psychiatric ward.
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Even 50 years ago you had to have some strong reason to involuntarily commit someone to a psychiatric ward.
Depended mightily on the locality.
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Safer for everyone but the innocents who are involuntarily institutionalized for the crime of being eccentric. It was an insane progressive policy a century ago, and it's an insane progressive policy now.
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Of course, the reality is that it's impossible to stop all the lunatics. Make peace with that, voters.
Taking people's freedoms away is fun, even if it doesn't work. Rock on, voters.
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"Mental Health Policies"
You know who else had 'mental health policies'. -
Thanks, Sevo, we need something lighthearted now. OK...R.A. Nadzharov?
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Sorry, not lighthearted:
Stalin, Malenkov, Kruschchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and while I'm sure he (like Obozo) promised to 'fix' it, Gorby. -
Yeah, but the old "you know who else" game is at least comforting in its familiarity.
And that Nadzharov dude was a name I found in the Wikipedia article "Political Abuse of Psychiatry in the Soviet Union."
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Tonio| 12.17.12 @ 10:45PM |#
"Yeah, but the old "you know who else" game is at least comforting in its familiarity."It usually is, since it commonly deals with Hitler, who was a piker in mass murder. In this case, I should have made some indication that I was hinting at the heroes of the left/serious mass murderers.
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We all know how the game is played, Sevo. (grin)
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Wait! The correct answer is *always* Hitler?
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The traditional form of the game requires a question for which the correct answer is Hitler, but whoever supplies that answer loses since that's a Godwin. There's also the "red" version (Stalin, etc), ChiCom (Mao) version, etc.
You get points by correctly guessing the correct answer and hinting at it while avoiding it, or by providing an outrageously correct, though "wrong" answer, such as Joseph Kennedy above.
I thought this was covered during pledge night...
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correctlyOK, bedtime for Bonzo. Goodnight HandR.
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Ernst Blofeld?
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Benjamin Rush?
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As told roman a clef style in the TV serial Smallville.
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Others are unaware they are sick and should be required by law to receive assisted outpatient treatment, including medication and counseling, as is the case in New York under Kendra's Law. If they do not comply with the court-ordered treatment plan, they can and should be involuntarily admitted to a hospital.
People like Dr. E. Fuller Torrey who push this, are insane though they do not know they are sick, therefore, should be committed as a preemptive measure. For the children.
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You do know it was Torrey who was a big early advocate that schizophrenia was a biologic illness rather than the traditional idea of "bad parenting." He has been a major spokesperson and leader of NAMI -- the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill -- that is the closest thing those with mental illness have to the NRA. Yes, he is a fairly polar opposite in some regards to Szasz, but his ideas do contribute to the debate. Presently, mental health treatment is essentially in the middle ground between their two opinions.
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I still remember the woman who was postulating that Schozophrenia was the result of infant breast fantasy. Not a joke.
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I dunno. If there is one thing the left really is enthusiastic about (other than abortion) it's banning guns. I think they are going to give gun control a very good try first.
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I'll guess Feinstein is gonna pitch her 'outlaw what I can't define' in an effort to look like she's 'doing something', but the SCOTUS has pretty much stopped anything else.
And Obozo will chide the members at his 'state of the kingdom' message. And brain-deads everywhere will cheer and, uh, well, uh... -
He's got four more years to pack the court with Living Document types...
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Scalia would reanimate as a zombie before he'd cede his seat to an Obama appointee, and I doubt that Kennedy wants to give up his slot for another wise Latina or rubber-stamping proggie. I suspect Obama will get to replace Ginsberg and Breyer, but that's probably it.
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Wow, JR, abortion in the first sentence. Look, if you're going to go off-topic at least show some bollocks and mention the homos for the trifecta. Sheesh, you kids today....
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"Wow, JR, abortion in the first sentence"
I shoulda, you did.
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This is a chance for them to combine their two favorite things. Confiscating firearms and eugenics.
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including medication and counseling, as is the case in New York under Kendra's Law.
I have no idea who the hell this Kendra is, and frankly, I don't care. I'd vote against proposed legislation the legislator calls "[insert name of photogenic victim here]'s Law" on sheer principle.
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I'd vote against proposed legislation the legislator calls "[insert name of photogenic victim here]'s Law" on sheer principle.
That's usually good policy.
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Thanks, guys. I had forgotten what Loughner looked like.
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Yay, Smiley Guy! At a depressing time of bad news like this, it's comforting to see his picture here again.
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I know what the outcome will be: Money for hiring more teachers.
Smaller class sizes, you see.
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Well, of course, Robert. That will allow our hero educators to better observe any suspicious goings-on inside or outside their classrooms. Or something.
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Well, that's kinda true. It's easier to manage a classroom composed of less people....but considering the shooter wasn't a kindergartner, I don't see how that would help.
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"but considering the shooter wasn't a kindergartner, I don't see how that would help."
No matter.
That will be buried under the teachers' union push for more funds. -
Duh, fewer targets in one room.
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because, you see, the large kindergarten class sizes meant that the shooter didn't get the attention he needed and therefore slipped through the cracks, something something.
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Fuck that, we must reduce labor costs! One teacher and many little "classrooms" - we'll build a panopticon
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Speaking of that...
- Do you know who owns more than a 6% stake in the maker of .223 Bushmaster rifles, like the one used last Friday to murder 20 first graders and seven adults in Newtown, Connecticut? California public schoolteachers.
HA HA HA! Delicious!
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That is "ammo" for many discussions. Thank you.
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Too soon, Sevo.
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It's never too soon to link California Public School teachers to a mass shooting that they're 6% responsible for.
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Who's the "Corbomite Maneuver" looking motherfucker in the first picture?
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Tranya is a hell of a drug, man.
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No, but really, of what relevance is he to the post?
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That's the crazy SOB who killed the kids.
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What? How old is that picture?
Sorry, I was on vacation when this all went down. But FYI, I'm already sick of it.
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I'm guessing it's a school ID or yearbook picture maybe? So at least, 2 years old?
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Meanwhile, Mr. Gillespie, how'd we get from Sandy Hook to Sandy Springs, and are you really on a middle name basis with E. Fuller Torrey?
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Wow, both Loughner and this guy actually look psycho as hell. I mean you just look at these guys and you know they are off their rocker.
Loughner looks like someone out of a damn pscycho slasher B film, and Lanza looks like some type of gray alien drone or something. He in no way looks normal. Geez man, wouldn't someone have known these fuckers were deranged before they committed such extreme acts?
I knew a guy in Cincy when I was growing up there who was insane like that. I was maybe 16 when I met him and he was probably 18 or 19. My friends told me that he had a bad acid trip and just went insane. But you knew he was nuts and capable of anything from the first few minutes of being around him. I don't know what ever happened to him, but if he would have done something like Lanza or Loughner, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised.
That being said, what do you do to prevent this without getting into areas that violate liberty? I don't really know. What I do know is that any violation of the 2nd amendment sure as fuck is not it.
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It cannot be prevented.
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Between 18 and 21 is when the symptoms of schizophrenia typically first appear. You might hear people say about someone that they "had a bad trip and went insane" or "fried their brain on drugs" but it is not true. The drugs didn't cause the schizophrenia, it was there and was going to come out at some point in that age range. It usually takes some major stressor to cause what is called the "first break," be it death of someone close, difficulty at school or in a relationship, or a very bad drug experience.
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A small percentage of people will have their cheese slide off their cracker, of these a microscopically tiny percentage of people have a possibility of having a break with reality that causes them to desire to go out in a blaze of glory revenge fantasy rather than suicide or other destructive behavior. But because everyone is an individual the exact combination of circumstances that lead to this outcome is also highly unique. No one but the individual who does it knows what particulars lead him to that outcome, everyone who isn't inside his head hasn't a chance in hell of guessing. Every attempt to prevent it will have a spectacular amount of false positives and still won't work.
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Isn't that more simply called losing one's temper?
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The more important & interesting Q is why we don't all do it on a fairly regular basis.
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OK, but BSA pretty much makes it clear that none of your comment offers anything like 'predictability' or 'prevention' or even 'falsifiability'.
So what is the point? -
I was commenting about the "guy from Cincy" who was reported to have had a "bad acid trip and went insane." Just a clarification on the illness, not an attempt to say there was anything predictive about it. Quite the opposite, the chances are extraordinarily high that the guy from Cincy will never hurt anyone.
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"I knew a guy in Cincy when I was growing up there who was insane like that"
No I *WASN'T*!
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Yes you was!
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were!
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ARE, damnit!
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Well, ya know when Dylan started the second act with the electric guitar, I did kinda go nuts...
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Leaving aside the dubiousness of judging people by their facial appearance, the Loughner pic is his mugshot after the attack. That's not what he looked like beforehand.
It's possible this Lanza pic had its aspect ratio changed during processing. The other pics I've seen of him look more normal.
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Loughner's the 2nd photo, right? H&R was running that photo a lot, and even when his name was cxd to it, because I'm not good remembering name cx, I had no idea what it was other than some semblance of Alfred E. Neuman that for some reason ran with "downer" stories, which is almost all of them here, and, come to think of it, anywhere. So I just came to think of him as Smiley Guy, and his picture always cheered me up. He just looks like someone who'll smile in the face of adversity -- and when I found out what the story was, I guess that's exactly how he was, huh?
So I still think of him as Smiley Guy, divorced from the underlying story, and I'm a little gladder when I see his picture. It softens the blow of bad news like The War on School Children, as the Conn. & China stories were dubbed by someone here. Keep smiling, Smiley Guy!
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Well there is our motive. He was a vegan! Vegans kill! Ban vegetables now!
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Damn vegans! Outlaw 'em!
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We should rightly be suspect of politically aware teenagers.
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Really? I thought they were responsible for telling their parents about green policy and how to vote Democrat. I guess I was confused...
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I'm trying to avoid the obvious answer upon which the left will seize.
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Since Lanza was a white male, I knew the neo-liberalism matrix would wheel out the usual suspects (angry right winger, gun worshipper, prepper, anti-government, etc.).
But now they are bringing capitalism and free market economics into it. Like you said, for fuck's sake...
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Clearly laissez-faire capitalism and "conservative" worldviews are the problem.
Time to ban Capitalists and Conservatives. For the children.
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And that guy isn't terribly aware if he thinks that most people in the country are into free markets.
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In addition to his technological and weapons prowess, Adam Lanza was an excellent dancer – at least within the confines of the Dance Dance Revolution video game.
Do writers still get paid by the word? If so, that would explain this projectile defecation of an article.
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So he was a rail-thin, pitifully awkward weirdo whose social life consisted of spazzing around to the strains of Dance Dance Revolution? Hello, ladies!
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Never ever let a tragedy go to waste. Time to get the pitchforks and torches everyone it is witch-hunting season.
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Smart Money Is on Geithner to Replace Bernanke
Oh my no. If that is what we get by replacing Bernanke, the "Smart Money" will be investing overseas.
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The other candidates didn't seem all to compelling either. Larry Summers? Seriously?
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B-b-b-but, Timmy saved the economy from certain ruin!
Last I heard, Geithner was still talking about how the economy was "on the mend." Not sure how I feel about having Pollyanna as a hospice nurse.
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By design, the New York Fed has traditionally been the most powerful of the Federal Reserve banks, because of its proximity to the powerful Wall Street banks that it regulates.
Which is why we must preserve the independence of the Fed from people like Ron Paul.
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The progtards where I work are already having their discussions about how we are going to move forward with strict gun control. Not if, but how, we, together. No thought at all that there might be even the slightest opposition to their ill conceived plan. They think they finally have the tragedy that will allow them to just do whatever they please with gun rights, open and shut case, just move forward.
Maybe just my own opinion and of no value, but I see them as clueless dumb fucks living in their own little microcosm.
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Nothing is going to happen with gun control. The media will blart about it for awhile, then it will fade away like it always does.
The Dems learned back in the 90's that the 2nd Amendment is the other 3rd rail.
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I'm not so sure about that. I haven't seen any poll questions on the issue but my guess is that we will see at least a temporary boost for some form of gun control. Its natural, if illogical, after a horrific event like this for people to search for a scapegoat. My guess is large magazines and clips will be banned.
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They are banned in CT. It will be amusing to watch CT lawmakers try to figure out how to make their gun laws worse - none of which would change the outcome of this shooting in the least.
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It's a show about Nothing!
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One major problem with ramping up the mental health treatment schemes in the US is that it might actually make the problem worse. It is an open secret that a 2004 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analysis of clinical trials on children with major depressive disorder on SSRI's found statistically significant increases of the risks of "possible suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior" by about 80%, and of agitation and hostility by about 130%.
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Never mind the fact that the DSM is suitably vague and arbitrary enough to make essentially everyone "mentally ill" to some degree or another.
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I can just imagine some ten year old who did something completely normal for a kid being labeled as "possibly dangerous" and being alienated by teachers and other school personnel.
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That already happens post columbine.
I was teaching 7th grade sunday school in the early 2000s when I discovered a mildly threatening note from one student to another. ("You're dead if you ...." was featured prominently) Knowing that I and my friends at that age did similar things in jest all the time, I let them off with a stern warning.
Then the DRE of the parish found out and I was in deep shit for not alerting the "authorities". His concern was that we could be held responsible if either kid came to school with a gun next time or whatever.
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I'm not sure what a DRE is but I understand the concern. He/she/it is probably also worried about helicopter parents swooping in and suing or something.
As funny as it might be, I'm not sure having the police come and arrest a 13year old at a sunday school meeting would be the best option.
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Director of Religious Education
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It is an open secret that a 2004 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analysis of clinical trials on children with major depressive disorder on SSRI's found statistically significant increases of the risks of "possible suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior" by about 80%, and of agitation and hostility by about 130%.
I don't know what an 'open secret' is, but it is well broadcast that most antidepressants carry what is called a "black box warning" in their product insert warning against heightened risk of suicide and aberrant behavior.
There are those who argue, though, that the conditions they are attempting to treat already at high risk for these outcomes -- i.e. people with mood disorders are at high risk for suicide and agitation. It's like saying those on a drug to treat people with coronary artery disease are at higher risk for heart attacks.
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There are those who argue, though, that the conditions they are attempting to treat already at high risk for these outcomes -- i.e. people with mood disorders are at high risk for suicide and agitation
I remember thinking this during the Prozac scare: That hey, a large concentrated population of suicidal people take this drug for treatment, and some of them commit suicide. It must be the Prozac!
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SSRIs are generally acknowledged as energizers. Strange as it may sound, severe depression can lead to someone being too exhausted to muster the necessary will to kill himself. Give him an SSRI for a couple of months, and he might feel just good enough to pull the plug.
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bingo
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Is that good or bad? (As long as they don't take others with them)
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If they've done controlled trials, and the placebo group has less suicidal thoughts than the medicated group, there is justification for thinking the drug is responsible.
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It's hard to be suicidal on a sugar high.
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That's how it's usually explained in psychiatry: Rx to get people out of depression, such as via drugs or ECT, run the risk of motivating them enough to kill themselves before they get better, while previously they were too down to do even that.
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From banning certain types of guns arbitrarily designated as "assault weapons" to limiting high-capacity magazines to insisting on better or more complete federal background checks, it's not clear how such measures would stop or minimize mass shooters.
It's perfectly clear how these measures would stop or minimize mass shooters: they won't. AFAIK, Connecticut already has an Assault Weapons™ ban that didn't cover this particular rifle, and he still had plenty of ammo left to blast off. The capacity of his magazines were a non-issue. His mother bought the rifle and handguns for herself.
There are no gun restrictions that will stop crazy from being crazy.
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I've had (and continue to have) mental health problem through out my entire life. I'd hate to be incarcerated for no reason simply because I "might hurt someone". Please stop scapegoating us weirdos simply because video games, gun-owners, and gays don't quite work anymore.
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Is that your excuse for not reading the article?
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I read the artical. Okay, I didn't. How'd you know? You spying on me?
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Gun control (gun free zones in schools) is what got those kids KILLED! Had jsut ONE person at that school been armed, lives would have been SAVED!
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Amen, anonbot. Amen.