That may be so, but the only conclusion one can draw here seems to be that ALL of the progress to be made has to come in the mental health realm -- no?
I don't think so, no. I think progress can be made in research and training.
So what kind of proposal are you suggesting? How do we demand ... well, how do we demand WHAT? If the medical science doesn't exist to identify these extreme anomalies, what are we asking for?
Obviously, we aren't circling back to ... "well we can't really fix this, so let's throw them a bone (like "Assault Weapons") and hope they go away." So what ARE we proposing?
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=8573719&postcount=125
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.
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