To be perfectly honest I don't think the problem is fixable in the mental heath field any more than it is fixable by more Gun control.
It would be nice to think that we can develop a working profile of what happens in the humans mind to allow it to do such an evil act. It's hard for me to believe we have that ability .
Perhaps part of the problem is the notoriety the shooters receive from such an act. If you want to put your name and mark on the world ,some have learned through the media ,this is the way to do so ? Perhaps another part is the desensitizing of acts of violence via video games ? I am not qualified to do anything but guess. but I have the feeling no-one else has the handle on the right switch either.
Trying to understand insanity is at best a lesson in humility. We don't know everything there is to know. Trying to fix something like this with a shotgun approach is simply wrong. It doesn't work. To do something just for the sake of doing something does not work.
Please excuse my long-winded reply:
Agreed on the whole with a few exceptions. First, where we agree:
Notoriety of perpetrators: This has been postulated by some. Called "sensationalism in the media," "wall-to-wall coverage," etc.. As HSO rightly pointed out these are exceptionally, EXCEPTIONALLY rare events. One thing I know from personal experience is that we only learn the "right" way to do something by repetition. Thankfully, we have precious little repetition in dealing with mass kills and school shootings. The same is true for the much-maligned media. Finding the balance -- within the context of covering a tragedy like this -- between giving the public at large information about what the criminal did and not giving him/her notoriety is something the media has simply not found. I sincerely hope they do not have many more opportunities to try and find it. There is evidence in the psy-forensic research to indicate that the diseased mind sees coverage of other acts of violence and responds to that. So the media coverage feeds into that. How to inform the public without giving the perpetrator notoriety is a balancing point I have no idea how to find either.
Video Games: Again postulated by many people. On the other hand, I have many friends who play videos games for hours and do not perpetrate acts of violence.
Maybe if we encourage people to stop looking at this as an equation where 1+1=2, and to look at it as an algorithm, where there are many variables along a continuum we will have success in finding a solution?
Gun control alone will not solve this problem. There is ample data to suggest that it will not even minimize it's effect. Video Game control alone will not solve this problem. Mental Healthcare alone will not solve this problem. Media correction will not solve this problem. Putting a weapon in the hands of every principal in every school in America will not solve this problem.
Even careful and elegant attention to all these factors will not eliminate this problem. However, considering all these things can help minimize this problem.
What can we as responsible gun owners suggest publicly to address the dangerous area where guns and the mentally ill overlap? Better yet, what can we as responsible gun owners ASK FOR to address this issue? What can we ask of the mental health field to help us make suggestions? I've read a lot about what we CAN'T suggest and can't do here. But precious little about what we can do to help and even less about what we can ask FOR in order to protect our rights and address the dangerous place where guns and mental illness intersect. All too often the voices of pro-RKBA come across as individualized know-it-alls rather than members of a community seeking answers like everyone else. What if we spoke with a voice that said "We understand that there is inherent danger where guns and mental illness intersect. We have suggestions but they require the help of the mental health community, psychological forensics community, and the political leaders, to help us find a way to ensure that our rights are protected in total while we help our communities minimize the instances where mental illness and guns intersect in tragedy."
The fact is, there is forensic evidence that helps us understand the mentally ill and how they get to this point. Just like EVERY VIOLENT ENCOUNTER, there is, in fact, a process of escalation that leads to these tragic outcomes. In these cases the escalation is different (slower) than it is in the typical tactical "street fight" scenario, but it is nonetheless real.
How many of us, through our CCW classes/training, received any kind of instruction about escalation and de-escalation as it relates to the home and the mentally ill? How many of you who are firearms dealers received any training with regard to the mentally ill and the process of escalation? Wouldn't most of us appreciate learning about this, if not to help prevent one of these tragedies than at least for our own personal edification?
I would.
I'd like to see even the most basic of training in types of threat escalation and methods of de-escalation offered as a component of CCW, Firearms dealer, and even hunter safety training. Not just because of tragedies like Newtown, but because of the process of escalation inherent in suicides in the home, domestic violence, etc.. I would even concede that this training could be mandated by law without being a violation of the 2A. (Even militias required training)
But more importantly, this training would benefit all of us from a tactical perspective and from the perspective of protecting our communities.
It's also a fact that there are certain traits among the mentally that manifest prior to these incidents and we give the family of the mentally ill very little resources to respond to those traits. We leave families like these twisting in the wind, hoping a day like Friday never comes. One of the few resources we have is involve law enforcement, turn these people into a criminal problem, and then turn our LE community into psychiatrists and our prisons into defacto mental health facilities. While this isn't under the purview of RKBA, we can lobby the NRA to help address the mental health issues that often bring our guns into the public eye as the villain. I'd propose that the NRA make great contributions to mental health research, counseling, and management in all 50 states. The NRA could commission an unbiased study of the overlap of mental illness and firearms designed to help and inform law enforcement, NRA members, government agencies tasked with addressing mental health and society at large.
As I said, changing one thing isn't going to solve this problem. Nothing is going to eliminate this problem. But I think there are opportunities to inform and learn from these situations and be seen as part of the solution while still respecting our rights.
