MASS SHOOTINGS AND THE LARGER PROBLEM OF THE MENTALLY ILL

COLORADO SHOOTER JAMES HOLMES

Congress Avenue in Austin was, for many years, one of my favorite destinations in Texas.  There were bookshops, boutiques, nice hotels, coffee shops and, during the week, the thoroughfare was full of well-dressed people, who worked in banks, law offices, engineering firms and state office buildings.  Lunch hour on Congress was a veritable fashion runway, as the young and up-and -coming folks crowded into trendy restaurants on the avenue.  For me, flying from Brownsville to Austin for meetings was not at all hard duty.

ADAM LANZA: NEWTOWN SHOOTER

But, alas, that was more than 20 years ago.  Austin now prides itself on being "weird,"  and it more than lives up to its desired designation.  If one strolls along Congress today, one not only encounters   the cacophony and exhaust of a plethora of buses, on most blocks there is the lingering odor of human feces and urine, the calling cards of of Austin's ample population of the weird.  Odds are also great that strollers will be panhandled and even harassed by individuals whose appearance easily sets them apart as seriously disturbed human beings.

Yes, we are now paying the price for policies set in motion during the late 1960's.  The idea at the time was that pharmaceuticals could more easily and inexpensively control the growing number of mentally incompetent individuals.  As a consequence, cities like Austin have burgeoning populations of street people who have become menaces to themselves and to the population at large.

ARIZONA SHOOTER JARED LOUGHNER

Little thought was given to where the deinstitutionalized would live, how they would eat and what means would be employed to insure that they would be able to regularly receive their medications.  And, today, federal, state and local authorities seem at a total loss on how to deal with the situation.

NAVY YARD SHOOTER AARON ALEXIS

Ever notice how the perpetrators of mass shootings are either  mentally unstable adults or  children coming from homes marked by irresponsible parents?  Yet, if normal citizens would demand that our authorities issue public information on these individuals and keep close tabs on their whereabouts and  backgrounds, we would be accused of prejudice and breach of privacy. It is easy to imagine the ACLU making a cause celebre out of any such effort.  Consequently, demented minds are given carte blanche to wreak havoc on society, engaging in atrocious acts of mayhem, massacre and murder.

It is even more absurd how the anti-gun lobby is quick to capitalize on the acts of the manic, somehow tying their deeds to the great mass of honest, tax-paying American citizens who believe in the unqualified legitimacy of the 2nd Amendment and in their right to possess arms.  The hypocrisy of the anti-gunners blinds them to the havoc in our society which stems from the failure to deal in a meaningful way with the larger issue of mental health and how government has failed us in this regard.

How was it, for example, that the behavior of Aaron Alexis, a Navy veteran and a civilian who worked for the Navy, was never deemed to be problematic, bizarre and dangerous?  How was it that Major Nidal Hassan was not seen to be a menace at Ft. Hood?  There are, indeed, a myriad of questions that need to be asked about the dense, obtuse and nonsensical policies of government which make it all too likely that atrocities of this kind will continue to occur. And it must be remembered that the exploitation of the senseless acts of the demented for the purpose of disarming the general population will not result in a safer, more secure society, but only in a country which has surrendered a vital freedom.

Deo vindice!