Gun Control thread (merged many)

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

With the Doctor's quote that you mentioned there, was that quote taken before or after the mass-murder? Because you will notice that post-event many people will come out of the woodwork to state that the person who undertook the massacre was 'a bit odd', from either playing violent games, being a gun enthusiast, or listening to heavy metal music. It is quite possible that the Doctor only latched onto that sentence after the event when he came to realise the significance of it, at the time it was probably just noted and ignored.

That quote was from the notes Dr. Heatly made of that session before the murders, typewritten and dated March 29, 1966.

You can read them in their entirety here:
http://alt.cimedia.com/statesman/spe...an/heatley.pdf

There is a real difference between listening to heavy metal or playing Doom and what Whitman said. He admitted to hitting his wife, thinking about killing people and would exhibit mood swings mid sentence. Mass-murderer or not that is at least a man who needs help. All he got was "make an appointment", that is a failure right there.

Likewise, if one were to look strictly at the online blogs of Eric Harris and his 'rage against society' one would not have any major alarm bells ringing initially that would not also be put down to a young man going through a difficult stage of his life. In fact, on website statements alone one could probably select several members of this community out for concern that they may become a mass murderer. Obviously, as time went on, there were increasing warning signs from Harris and Klebold, however there is simply not the money or the manpower to read every online blog, to watch every troubled teen or young man, and only those who actually go to seek help are those who make it into the system, which at the moment from what I can tell in the writings post-Sandy Hook, is somewhat lacking in America because of a cutback which took place a while ago.

The fact is, unless you unleash the sort of 'big-brother' style monitoring system on America which pro-gun supporters seem determined to fight against, then you will not stop these sort of things happening because people will fall through the system, then they will get angry with the system, and then they will shoot at the system, taking out anyone who gets in the way, and usually they are young school-age people who see the school as 'part of the system' and thus target it.

So, what do you do? That's the Catch-22.

Well the VA has recently put a huge emphasis on mental health. Every time you call them you get reminded that if you are feeling like you might hurt yourself or someone else to talk to them. They bombard you with pamphlets, gun locks and refrigerator magnets:


You are right about cutbacks. The VA tends to have a budget to do this since Vets have some clout with the politicians. Students (which Whitman was one after all) don't have that kind of clout, they don't have much of a lobby. Students at all levels are not getting any health education not just mental. Students provide an interesting case for the government, you can force them to do stuff (really ask any kid if he wants to go to school), but there is very little in requirements to learn about their mental health. When I went though school we learned the whole score of black history about three times, about how to put a rubber on our junk five or six times (once was in a into to business vocational class... seriously), but never that if we are thinking about hurting someone to go talk to a professional.