take on mental illness

Last week's tragedy was so heartbreaking because like all of these mass murders it was an attack against innocents but this time it was also an attack against innocence.   As a father of two I cannot imagine the pain and suffering I would go through and quite honestly I don't know how I would have the strength to go on.    For four days the eyes of a nation and the world have been on this small town and the chatter from everywhere is how to make sure this is the last time this will ever happened.   Everybody will want to make this a gun-law issue but at its heart it's not.   Gun laws are too lax and there is no reason any civilian should be carrying around intended for the theater of war and it's our responsibility to make sure that we keep this kind of weapon out of the hands of all citizens.   There is no justifiable reason for anybody to be allowed to carry this type of weapon of mass destruction just like there is no reason to allow somebody to drive a tank or carry an anti-aircraft missile.   An assault weapon bill should be signed into law before we toast the New Year.

But this at its core is not a gun issue, it's one of mental illness and untreated mental illness plays out in many ways, most of it destructive and some of it catastrophic.  What is obvious is that limiting the access to these types of weapons will limit the destruction but nobody should be under the impression it will eliminate them. 

What our energy should be focused on is finding the type of person who could act be prone to this type of behavior.  For four days (or for 15 years) we have tried to figure out what caused this, we have seen interviews with friends and family, we have tried to find reason, we have poured over high-school transcripts and we have tried to profile the killer.   What is clear is that there is no reason for the behavior but there is a profile.   They are almost always white males from somewhat affluent backgrounds who believe they are being bullied/treated unfairly.  But the most important trait is that people like Adam Lanza, Seung-Hui Cho, Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, James Holmes and Jared Loughner each suffered from mental-illness which in no ways is an excuse but might shine a light on what we should be looking for.   

Mental illness will find ways to boil-over and Adam Lanza would have found a way to bring destruction, limiting his ability to get an automatic weapon would have limited the casualties but nobody should believe it would have eliminated them.   I'm not excusing his (or any of his predecessors) behavior and I do NOT think that this kind of mental illness deserves our sympathy but we should know that just like we as a country failed in our job to protect our citizens by allowing these types of weapons to be available; we also failed in our job to properly assess and treat (and institutionalize) mental illness.    

This is an issue that comes down to freedom because as a free country we believe it's every person's right to free will but this is exactly where we fail.   A person who shows major psychological problems should NEVER be allowed to walk the streets let alone buy/handle/borrow/carry an Uzi.   We need to find a way to identify, treat and watch people with these levels of psychosis and we can't be afraid to spend money to make sure we are providing them the "care" they (and we) need for their protection and ours.