Another angle on school shootings, spectacular violence

OutOfBreath
OutOfBreath Posts: 1,804
edited October 2006 in A Moving Train
Am I alone in thinking that perhaps an improved mental healthcare could do away with alot of these scenarios? The people that do this aren't usually screwed together correctly. This isn't necessarily about guns and availability alone at least. (Although easy access also means easy access for people flipping mentally.)

Why is noone calling for strengthened mental healthcare, so one can detect these ticking bombs earlier and give them some treatment and thus prevent the tragedies, or at least some of them? I swear, every other fucked up murder/violence I hear about, the people doing it are people who have been or should have been committed to mental hospitals. I feel people focus on the wrong things to prevent these cases. It's more fun to debate gun laws or immigration issues, than the fact of the mental health of the perpetrators.

A recent example. Yesterday, in Norway, there was this story of a 30-year-old who murdered his 3 sisters. The focus was on the ethnicity, as the man and his victims were Pakistani immigrants. Speculations ran high that it was a case of "honour-killing" and the women were murdered because of that. And there were tv-debates on whether pakistani women were less safe, fretting about it being an honour-killing and so on. Today, the media finally reports that the killer's brother had tried twice to have him committed to the mental hospital, because he feared he could be a danger to himself and others. The issue isn't immigrants, or different culture. The issue is mental health! This man should have been committed before. I think he also had wounded som of his siblings with a knife earlier.

The answer isn't gun-laws, the issue isn't immigration or culture, the issue isn't protection. The issue is mental health, and detecting these and giving them treatment and help before it's too late.

What do you say?

Peace
Dan
"YOU [humans] NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death

"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • reeferchief
    reeferchief Posts: 3,569
    Mental health issues are not always easy to spot, it can be quite obvious in some people, but in others it is often well hidden spouting from the unconcious and can often need a trigger before someone starts acting differently.
    For instance schizophrenia, the average schizophrenic will have a few different personality's and while in one of those personalitys will show no signs of the others, but once someone treats him in a certain way or he has a reaction to a drug he'll change to a different personality and it could be a violent or aggresive one or whatever.
    Like I say mental issues are not always clear and easy to spot, thats all.
    Can not be arsed with life no more.
  • catefrances
    catefrances Posts: 29,003
    the government doesn't care about the mental people dan.
    they only care about the people who give them contributions. or those people who make enough ruckus to be noticed.
    hear my name
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  • OutOfBreath
    OutOfBreath Posts: 1,804
    reeferchief: I know, but more can certainly be done. And in many cases someone close to them know that something isn't right.

    catefrances: Well that's what I suspect for the US' part. didn't Reagan just throw out a lot of mental patients back in the day? Has any of it been rebuilt? this is a question. I honestly dont know. In the case of Norway, money are set aside for mental health, but it isn't used for various reasons. This is also a problem.

    My main point anyway is that instead of calling for gun-bans, guards, security checks and so on to the nth degree, a lot more could be accomplished by a better mental health service that could help these people before they go over the edge. I see it as a far better alternative than militarizing and putting checkpoints everywhere at least. And it is an angle I dont believe I've ever read or heard about in regards to this.

    Peace
    Dan
    "YOU [humans] NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death

    "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965

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