@BillRM,
Quote:I went mental help treatments available to those who show clear signs of needing such.
I think we already have mental health treatment available for those who need
and want it, but we can certainly beef it up even more.
We need to make sure that there is health care coverage to pay for such treatment, and that insurers support referrals to mental health care professionals to encourage such treatment.
But we also need to better screen the mental health of those who seek to acquire guns through legal channels--just as we already screen the mental health of those who would acquire guns by becoming law enforcement officers or members of the military. And that's also one way to identify those "who show clear signs of needing such" mental health care and offering them the proper referrals. And some sort of wide-scale mental health screening/testing/evaluation, which is computer scored, for those seeking to make gun purchases, can be accomplished without very much difficulty--police departments and the military have been doing that sort of thing for a very long time.
But you've also equivocated when Frank has pointed out that certain people should be kept from being able to buy guns, and that includes all the people with significant anger control issues, or episodic explosive anger outbursts, or a history of assaults, or specific threats, or stalking/harassment behaviors, and, as I've mentioned, those with domestic violence histories, or Orders of Protection in effect.
All of those who show high risk or high potential to use these guns in a violent manner should not be allowed easy access to purchasing guns. Otherwise, the entire idea of wanting "mental help treatments available", as a solution to the gun violence problem, is a totally meaningless statement. You need to identify those who are in need of such treatment
before they can acquire firearms legally, precisely so such treatment can be made available or suggested, and so we can help to make sure that the guns will not be in the wrong hands of the "bad guys" and the "sick guys". Perhaps such screening measures will also act as a motivator, for those who wish to acquire guns, to seek treatment in order to be able to obtain them, if their applications for purchase are denied.
Even if mental health screening is an imperfect solution, it's better than simply ignoring the issue, and it's certainly an option which is well worth considering, and discussing, in addressing the public health problem with gun violence. This isn't just about preventing mass murders, although we do want to try to accomplish that, it's also about trying to curb our systemic problem with gun violence, an issue you continually try to dodge.
