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It seems odd to me that we all have been concentrating on the seemingly unsolveable debate on gun control, while ignoring the other half of the equation: the mentally ill who are not confined away from the rest of the population.
Of course the issue would be who determines at what point someone can be considered "insane" enough to be placed in an asylum.
And it would be expensive.
But I'm sure willing to consider it. I think that I would really be fine with taking away the human rights of mentally ill people by confining them to asylums in order to decrease or even stop murders by "mentally unstable" people who have access to guns.
I actually started thinking about this in another context. One day I was peacefully browsing in a public library, and noticed a woman and her obviously abnormal adult son using a public computer. The man/boy was singing to himself and rocking back and forth. His mother was watching him. So, cool, I'm completely fine with that, they have the right to use the library too. But suddently the guy stands up and PUNCHES his mother. And not just a single punch, but a one two one two with both arms. And this was a BIG adult guy - at least six feet tall and fat. His mother rolled over into a defensive position and says in a calm voice "No, we do not hit people" (several times). The guy does sit back down at the computer again, saying to himself "Kill you, kill yourself!" over and over again. In the meantime I'm standing there like a useless idiot doing nothing, because it all happened in an instant. And there were young kids nearby who saw the whole thing! One old guy ran for the librarian, and she came, but it was all over by that time. And what could she have done, anyway? When it was all over I felt so badly for his mother - dealing with her mentally ill son was her daily burden; she must be so completely exhausted! How often had that happened before? Probably often. Wouldn't her life be so much better if her son was confined to an insane asylum?
Would American society as a whole be better if we confined the mentally ill to insane asylums?
Well, at one time that was the norm.
But then, the do-gooders took over, as they always do, and said that everybody has the right to be the best they can be, and progress to the highest level they are capable of achieving.
Which, on the face of it, sounds great.
BUT, there are those who can not and must not be allowed to freely intermingle with the rest of the population. What do we do with them when their care giver dies or runs away or just can't cope anymore? I have personal knowledge of one such young man. He has been difficult for his parents to control his whole life. Now that he is entering puberty, he is becoming borderline dangerous to those around him. What will become of him when his parents can no longer handle him? I don't know, but the day isn't far off when something will HAVE to be done!
What do we do with the people who will not take their medications as they should? Some of them are simply dangerous when off their meds!
The OP makes several valid points. We MUST ensure the safety of EVERYBODY! If that means locking up some to remove them from society, perhaps the time has come to return to the bad old ways! In a "gentle" fashion, of course.
Well, at one time that was the norm. But then, the do-gooders took over, as they always do, and said that everybody has the right to be the best they can be, and progress to the highest level they are capable of achieving.
Which, on the face of it, sounds great.
BUT, there are those who can not and must not be allowed to freely intermingle with the rest of the population. What do we do with them when their care giver dies or runs away or just can't cope anymore? I have personal knowledge of one such young man. He has been difficult for his parents to control his whole life. Now that he is entering puberty, he is becoming borderline dangerous to those around him. What will become of him when his parents can no longer handle him? I don't know, but the day isn't far off when something will HAVE to be done!
What do we do with the people who will not take their medications as they should? Some of them are simply dangerous when off their meds!
The OP makes several valid points. We MUST ensure the safety of EVERYBODY! If that means locking up some to remove them from society, perhaps the time has come to return to the bad old ways! In a "gentle" fashion, of course.
Actually it was Ronald Reagan who shut down most mental health funding, and RR was rarely described as a "do-gooder".
We have mental institutions. My ex-wife worked at one. But the ability to actually lock someone up involuntarily has become much more difficult over the last 50-60 years.
Ever see "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? The best part of the movie was the ending, when the Chief escaped. No one should be locked up in one of those places unless absolutely necessary.
I've actually worked in a psychiatric hospital. It wasn't a very nice place for the patients. Too many Nurse Ratchets running around.
Prevention is by far the best treatment for any disease. Hardly anyone will argue this.
State that takes good care of its citizens should dedicate proper effort to determining, what and why is causing mental illness.
THEN proper decisions should be made.
I'd like to see a state like this though.
I saw mental institutions from the other side; my ex-wife was in and out of them several times. Because of the "do-gooders", it was impossible to keep her there long enough to find out what was haywire in her brain and find medications that would fix it.
SO, they "stabilized" her, and turned her loose. Again and again!
It got to the point it was either leave or kill, so I left to preserve what little sanity I had left.
Not if you're going to call them Insane Asylums and use the same archaic methods that were used on people when we had such things.
Do you know how Geraldo Rivera (full disclosure: his real name is Gerald and his mother was Russian) got famous? He did a television expose on a facility on Staten Island called Willowbrook. He exposed extreme abuse and neglect of the "inmates" who were there because of "intellectual disabilities." That kind of thing freaks people out and the fact that there were many Willowbrooks back in the day gave psychiatric hospitals a bad name.
In-patient treatment can be very helpful to people with incurable disabilities. But it takes a lot of money that the public seems unwilling to contribute. Finally, thanks to Eddyline for pointing out that it was the Reagan Administration that halted much of the help that was formerly available to people with long-term mental issues, which accounts for a good portion of our homeless people, as well as the kind of schizophrenics who do mass murders.
It seems odd to me that we all have been concentrating on the seemingly unsolveable debate on gun control, while ignoring the other half of the equation: the mentally ill who are not confined away from the rest of the population.
The two problems are of course completely unrelated except in the narrow minds of those who would try -- after the fact, of course -- to lay blame for all the death and mayhem caused by guns at the feet of people they suddenly assume to suffer from some sort of mental issue. "All the signs were there" say the Monday morning quarterbacks, but the day before the ghastly deed, all these people were law-abiding gun owners whose 2nd Amendment rights were sacrosanct and off limits to any sort of limit or regulation. It's a Catch-44...i.e., twice as bad as a Catch-22.
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