Letter: No quick fix, but steps needed

Another tragedy — the thought of sending a child and loved ones to school never to see them alive again is overwhelming. Those families have our love and prayers. However, a solution is not as simple as gun control. Yes, persons with criminal records and a history of mental illness should not have access to guns.

But reality tells us, if a person deranged or otherwise wants a gun and is determined to gain access, he will manage to acquire lethal weapons. We must become knowledgeable of mental illness, personality disorders, violence potential and behaviors detrimental to the health and safety of others. There are always signs.

Unless on drugs, a person does not wake up one day and become a mass murderer. For whatever reason a person has mental or behavioral problems, we can no longer afford to ignore it. It has become tragically apparent; the problems of others can be detrimental to the health and safety of everyone.

Let’s make mental health and behavioral health services a priority. As sure as I am born to die, mental illness and behavioral problems are not going away because of fiscal problems and budget cuts.

We need to:

• Screen applicants for guns to assure they meet established criteria (diagnostic screens developed collaboratively by law enforcement and licensed mental health professionals) including criteria for assessing and determining violent behavior or potential for violence.
• Develop a behavioral health system allowing services on demand — no more waiting lists.
• Develop community-based initiatives to learn and increase the awareness of the signs and symptoms of behavior detrimental to the safety of others. We should become knowledgeable and communicate with our neighbors and sincerely care about their wellbeing.
• Realize no one is immune from such tragedies, and we must take a multifaceted approach to prevent mass murders. Please do not assume you have all the answers, be willing to listen, learn and get out of your comfort zone for meaningful solutions.
• Make it logical and normal to seek help for mental and behavioral problems, not negative and judgmental.

It is time. There is no quick fix. This is not about being a Democrat or Republican or rich or poor. America needs to unite and work together to assure mass murders of the innocent is prevented.

Brenda Lands

retired state employee

Baker

Comments

1) Comment by InPVille - 20/12/2012

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=272929 An empirical analysis of multiple victim public shootings by John R. Lott, Jr. of the Yale University School of Law and William M. Landes of the University of Chicago Law School first published in November of 1996 and last revised in October of 2000, and which looked at the time period of 1977 to 1997 in the United States, found that laws which permit the carrying of concealed weapons have been the most effective means of reducing such shootings. "contrary to a popular misconception, permit holders are virtually never involved in the commission of crime, let alone murder (Lott, 2000)" - - - "We find that right-to-carry laws reduce the number of deaths, and that these deaths were increasing before passage of the law and falling thereafter." - - - "Conclusion - Right-to-carry laws reduce the number of people killed or wounded from multiple victim public shootings as many attackers are either deterred from attacking or when attacks do occur they are stopped before the police can arrive. We are able to provide evidence for the first time that the harm from crimes that still occur can be mitigated. Given that half the attackers in these multiple victim public shootings have had formal diagnoses of mental illness, the fact that some results indicate concealed handgun laws reduce these attacks by almost 70 percent is remarkable. Differences in state right-to-carry laws are also important: restricting the places where permits are prohibited increases murders, injuries and shootings; more training requirements reduce injuries; and higher fees increase injuries and the number of attacks. The much greater deterrence that right-to-carry laws have for multiple victim public shootings than for other crimes like murder is consistent with the notion that a higher probability of citizens being able to defend themselves should produce a greater level of deterrence. The results are robust with respect to different specifications of the dependent variable, different specifications of the handgun law variable, and different control variables."

2) Comment by DMJ - 20/12/2012

What's really sad about tragedies like this is people are more upset about the hypothetical future threat to gun rights than they are about the tragedies themselves. Very sad indeed.

3) Comment by Buck - 20/12/2012

Thanks Ms. Lands, yes there are no easy solutions to address this historic culture of violence, especially in La. which has the no. 1 highest per capita rate of violence with guns in the U.S.. Realize also includes suicides, incidental and wounds. You may recall that Charity Hospital in N.O. was the military training facility for guns wounds. Great economic development opportunity. The bottom line is of course it's about the money. As the issue of smoking, it's a public health issue. But I digress, yes we need to look at all possibilities even perhaps those proposed by rgerald, etc. even though there is noting new here. An interesting approach that I reviewed that came out of Australia, you know those rough and wholly "Down Under" folks have decided that any time someone buys a gun not only to have to fill out a permit, but they have to have someone to vouch for their character, i.e. they become legally libel.

4) Comment by [e-mail] - 20/12/2012

Nonsense. The only way to safeguard children is to provide adequate security for them against any eventuality, and the wringing of hands, feel good initiatives, and more punishment and usurpation of the constitutional rights of gun owners won't help anything at all.

5) Comment by DMJ - 20/12/2012

Yes, by all means...let's address mental health....but pretending easy access to guns has nothing to do with tragedies (or just regular, daily violence) is an insult to the victims of such violence. This is a complicated issue; we should attack it from all fronts. Simply shrugging our shoulders and throwing up our hands and saying, "Oh well...people will get guns anyway" is defeatist and stupid.