Mental Illness and Guns

04/18/2007

Paul Munnis


Recent killings at the Virginia Tech highlight two significant American societal problems. The first is the impact of mental illness on our society and the other is the consequences of easy gun access when mental illness runs rampant. This killing spree was proof-positive that something must be done.

Before you think this is yet another anti-gun rant -- it’s not. I sense guns have a place in society but surely not in the hands of mentally ill persons. To some degree we control the issue by incarcerating our mentally ill, leaving them with a felony record, thus prohibiting gun sales to them. Yet, they manage to get guns anyhow. Sometimes by break-in to a home, sometimes by buying them in unusual circumstances from people who are not gun dealers, and sometimes by helping themselves to unsecured weapons at the home of relatives.

We are seeing the impact in the form of school shootings ranging from elementary to graduate schools. Local newspapers have daily stories of gun violence, and killings, and the courts are overrun with crimes committed with guns.

What is the fix? Well it surely is not one silver bullet acceptable to all Americans or else we would have implemented it long ago. Some of the best minds in America have thought long and hard about the problem yet cannot come up with a solution that Americans will accept. The reasons are many and one that is obvious is the difficulty of passing gun laws that work for both urban and rural areas of our nation. Many legislators have tried to come to grips with the problem and they have failed to reach a solution. It’s easy to blame groups like the NRA and other gun lobbies but the truth is that these groups have strong political support from citizens and voters and they are successful at blocking changes to gun laws.

Maybe we have to go at this a different way -- instead of attacking guns we may have to focus on managing mental illness. When we are successful then we will get other societal benefits as well. For example domestic violence, stalking, rape, and crimes of passion, will all drop.

Sen. Paul Wellstone was working hard at bringing mental health legislation to Washington at the time of his death by plane crash. We are now getting ready to deal with universal healthcare and we need to create provisions in that legislation to also deal with metal health treatment.

Back in the 50’s when States operated central mental health hospitals and treatment centers, the costs were just awful. The result was that when the States got a chance to ditch mental health facilities there was a stampede to close them. Yet there have been advances made in drugs, capabilities to monitor and track people, and clinical outpatient treatment. I think that we need to look and see if we can approach treatment of mental health in a phased-plan approach, adding more capabilities as resources permit. One of the awful scourges of mental illness is sexual predators who are ravaging our young.

Maybe we can influence the effects of the combination of guns and mental illness. I think we must at least try.