Since December 14, 2012 there has been an outpouring of sympathy from people here in the U.S. and around the world for the parents and survivors of the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The President issued condolences and appointed Vice President Biden the task of priming the pump of solutions to the problems of ‘gun violence.’ It has been reported that Mr. Biden held 22 meetings with 229 organizations and 31 elected officials.
Mostly as the result of these discussions, President Obama has issued 23 executive orders and sent 24 recommendations to the Congress for consideration to become laws. Various reports conclude that none of the recommendations would have prevented the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. Common sense tells us that federal, state and local laws are not obeyed by people determined to harm others. A study by Criminology Professors Koper and Roth and Dan Woods reported that there was no discernible evidence that the (1994) Federal Assault Weapons Ban provided any reduction in gun violence.
A Wall Street Journal article by Dr. Lloyd Sederer, author and Medical Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health and an adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of Public Health suggests that mental health services need reform. Some of the reforms he mentions are the laws governing involuntary hospitalization and the restrictions placed on communication with a patient’s family. Also referenced is the Hipaa (Health Insurance and Portability Accountability Act) law passed in 1996. Meant to protect individual medical information, it also eliminates the ability of a doctor to speak to a patient’s family, with some exceptions. State laws limit involuntary hospitalization and length of stay except in unusual cases.
Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado has adopted the attitude of ‘fix mental health’ not just firearms. The Governor is advocating universal background checks for all gun buyers. In addition his office has spent $18.5 million over the past five months developing modernized civil commitment laws and expanded community-based mental health treatment.
Dr. Sederer points out that no one thing can completely eliminate the risk of tragic events, but risks can be reduced by early identification and intervention if families are equipped to highlight problems so that mental-health professionals can respond to serious mental disorders. Dr. Torrey and Doris Fuller of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, VA recount that availability of public psychiatric beds in the U.S. has declined from 559,000 to just 43,000 over the past 50 years.
There are laws in nearly every jurisdiction large and small about the legal handling and operation of guns, knives and other weapons. These laws recite the violations and the corresponding punishments. Each state issues its own concealed carry permits and local security is primarily a local responsibility. In a recent TV interview, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the program host that the way crime was reduced when he was mayor was by enforcing the laws already on the books.
Mr. Obama is urging Congress to pass a gun trafficking bill at a cost of $4 billion. This request is the height of hypocrisy considering that Attorney General Holder has not released many documents relating to ‘Fast and Furious’, a gun trafficking scheme created, endorsed and executed by the ATF, a unit of the U.S. Department of Justice that cost the lives of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and an estimated 300 Mexican citizens.
Current federal, state and local ‘gun laws’ have apparently had little positive effect in the past. Focusing on ‘gun laws’ while allowing mental health practices and laws to go unchanged may be the harbinger of continued mass killings.