Why making mental health better, gun advocates' solution. is not enough

In trospect, better mental health services mean little without red flag laws and even then,  it is iffy. Over the past years, I have written columns after Columbine, Aurora, and other mass killings.  That professionals can spot a future mass killer assumes the killer even had visited a mental health professional, but when they do, there is a 50-50 chance even a trained pro can predict the patient will act out.  Even then,  what motivates a mass killer may not be an identified diagnosis.  Uncontrolled anger is technically not a mental health disease, so red flag laws need to be broader than just a diagnosis of paranoia or some other formal diagnosis of a recognized illness.  Those of us who have had to raise teenagers also know that even after 18 years old, few can control themselves and avoid risky behavior.. Their brains, especially young males, have not matured yet to be wired to be rational. The assumption needs to be all under 21 are a potential risk.  At the minimum, if there is no ban of assault-type weapons of war, the age should be raised to 21.  Some states have done that, but a neighboring state may not which is why the approach needs to be federal.  If such laws had been in effect in Texas, chances are Uvalde would not have happened since the shooter was just 18, no red flags, and no record of a personality out of control that we know of so far.   I am reproducing an excerpt below from one of those columns and references to sources coloring my opinions. 

in the wake of the Aurora Colorado theatre shooting, the shooter had been under the care of a psychiatrist who did flag him, but restrictions kept anyone from acting. My psychologist friends (I am a supporter of mental health system improvements and access to counseling through a faith-based organization) tell me even then they have only a 50-50 chance of predicting which of their patients will carry out mass shootings or kill someone. Mental health is a factor, but in courts of law, the insanity plea is rarely successful. Should we improve our mental health services? Yes. Every little bit will help, but it is not a panacea or even a major deterrent. Without red flag laws permitting reporting of people may be a threat and without universal background checks, improved mental health access still hamstrings the ability for mental health professionals to prevent mass killings.

http://bigthink.com/risk-reason-and-reality/the-supreme-court-ruling-on-the-2nd-amendment-did-not-grant-an-unlimited-right-to-own-guns

"https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/anger-isnt-a-mental-illness-but-we-should-still-treat-it.html
Is mental health the cause of mass killings? The writer of this post gives us some important food for thought. From this psychologist'.s viewpoint, the motivation is uncontrolled anger ...rarely an underlying mental illness. This supports an argument of why we need red flag laws and background checks as part of sensible gun legislation. However, the solution she suggests goes far beyond any legislation discussed today...it is teaching young people anger management and the tools are there...even in Colorado, which she holds up as one model.

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/08/05/red-flag-gun-laws-trump-colorado/

On yesterday's school shooting; it is a political issue and it should be

 On the shooting in Uvalde, Texas: Yes, this is a political issue, it should be because politicians can help fix it. Ban the sale of assault weapons and large magazines or whatever you call these weapons of war. Give school administrators the ability to intervene when the red flags are raised. . That speaks to how one gunman can kill masses of people. in a matter of minutes ...and whole classrooms and their teachers. It is also why arming teachers and police resource officers and law enforcement officers are outgunned and have to use war tactics to bring them down. We have banned the sale of combat weapons before. We can do it again. I am a gun owner, but .. I could be that grandmother in Buffalo, and the grandmother of yesterday's shooter. I am the mother of a teacher of an upper elementary teacher who herself is the mother of a survivor of a local school shooting, and both mother and daughter have spent a matter of years recovering from the mental health damage. Her daughter sheltered in a cloakroom closet for hours until her room was cleared..as the gunman took his life in the next classroom. He, a fellow student she knew well, did not have weapons of war, only a legally bought shotgun, but "only two died", not 10 nor 20.. The shooter had already been flagged as a potential threat by his school authorities, but they did nothing to prevent it. (The school district was successfully sued) I am the grandmother of a grandson, a 4th grader, who cowered under his desk for hours in a school near Sandy Hook. I live in two communities, one is urban and of which gave the name of infamy to Columbine and Aurora movie carnage. The other, rural community where shotguns are a matter of necessity, but hunting and protection from wildlife are not done by weapons of war. Each mass shooting becomes the blueprint for the next mass killer, and they learn how to become more deadly. Stop this insanity now.

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/elections/2022/heartbroken-colorado-officials-candidates-react-to-massacre-at-texas-elementary-school/article_03281f4c-dbcc-11ec-a4f1-b33a5486a4ff.html

Joe Biden on Uvalde, Texas school shooting: full speech (statesman.com)

Colorado, the birth mother of mass shootings, Columbine, Aurora theatre, and the most recent one in a Boulder supermarket, is where politicians have taken the responsibility to do something about it. What a contrast is Gov. Polis to Gov. Abbott of Texas. Abbott called his political opponent SOB for demanding he take action in the wake of Uvalde.. Polis signed precisely the kind of legislation Abbott refuses to support.

COLORADOPOLITICS.COM

Polis signs three gun bills introduced after the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting

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