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/

Reflections on the Aurora shooting this AM. Is something wrong with Colorado?

July 20, 2012

I am sitting in the same living room that I watched on TV as the Columbine shooting unfolded in 1999. Today it is the mass shooting in the Aurora movie theater.   Flash backs to that day in 1999  were superimposed on today’s horror covered by both national and local news TV coverage.  My feelings reflect my Denver daughter’s text just before 5 am this morning: “ Seriously, now we will not be able to go to the movies in peace.  Ummmm, it is not the foreigners we need to be frightened of….”

Tom Costello, former TV reporter with KUSA TV in Denver, now with NBC,  was interviewed on MSNBC, and he asked “What is wrong with Colorado” and he talked about covering the Chuck E Cheese massacre  in Aurora  in 1993.  I, too, wondered myself.

Looking on an Associated Press site that provided   a list of mass shootings, similar incidents  have happened world wide,  from  the recent ones in Scandinavia, some in China and points in between.  World wide, too, this is known as the “Columbine Effect”.  Some of the countries  have good  mental health support systems in place.  The US mental health services are woefully lacking, but thanks to Columbine, our emergency responders have become well prepared for repeat incidents. Unlike the US, not all of the countries have our freedom to bear arms.   Costello asked…is it the gun mentality or something else in our state?  One thing is sure, Colorado will be doing some self examination in the days to come.

My daughter has reason to be particularly attuned to the events. She is a school teacher in an elementary school that feeds into Columbine. Jefferson County and her school are constantly drilling should a copy cat event like that happens.  She is a frequent movie goer and the mother of three teens.  There are many around the world,  as the President himself just commented on TV speaking from Florida, who can imagine themselves and their children being victims, including his two daughters.

Even we in the Granby, Colorado area have had our own dose of an angry, revenge seeking member of our community who carried out his emotions in 2004 in a converted bulldozer outfitted like a tank. Marvin Heemeyer set about destroying property  owned by the objects of his disaffection and ended the rampage by taking his own life. Fortunately, it was only property that was victimized,   there were those who sympathized with his motivation, and he served as their proxy.  Credit him at least for respecting human life; the shooter today had none. Regardless of our feelings about Heemeyer,   we have had our own experience with human beings unloading their rage on innocent people. This, too made news throughout the world…not because of the numbers killed (Heemeyer himself was the only loss of life), but because his methods of venting were unique.

A brief Google Search and posting by others of psychiatric  profiles of those who commit  mass shootings, I learned that the motivations and states of mind vary  greatly.  One about serial murders, which also applied to mass killings(socialscience.slow.ac.uk/criminology_notes) got my attention: “They are driven by selfish, powerful and uncontrolled desires…the origins of the personality type may be numerous and sometimes disputed. Certain commentators believe a person is born with the possibility of acquiring such a personality. Note, however, that all accept that upbringing, especially relationships and parents and the amount exposure to violence as a child, has a major impact on their development.”

Perhaps the permeation of violence in our modern societies exposed to so many through modern media may be part of the picture. Another is the ability of modern armaments permits one shooter to do so much damage.

It is still is early in our digestion of the Aurora events, but from interviews with witnesses in the theater say that the shooter fired during a fighting scene in the preview beginning of the Batman movie.  Whether the violence of such films provided some motivation for the shooter acting out a fantasy or was a cover to give the shooter a better chance to get off more rounds, we do not yet know. Nonetheless, it is time for us in Colorado to do some serious reflection as we ask “why”.