Yet another task force

In the wake of the horrific slaughter of innocent people in Newtown, Connecticut, President Obama has appointed Vice President Biden to study what can be done to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again.
Here are a few things for him to contemplate.

On the same day as the Newtown tragedy, a man in central China entered a classroom and slashed 22 children.

In 1999 Steven Abrams, diagnosed with schizophrenia, drove his car onto a school playground in California, killing two young children. He had been hospitalized for psychiatric problems and had talked of killing children. Also in California, Marie West, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and with 19 previous hospitalizations, intentionally ran over an elderly man in 2000. The following year David Attias, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and previously hospitalized, drove his car onto a sidewalk in the Golden State, killing four and injuring nine. He then got out of his car and said he was an “angel of death.”

Each of the above cases involve people who seem to have serious mental problems. 

In this country, at least, that seems to be something that is spoken about only in hushed tones, but never seriously addressed.  In fact, Connecticut may be one of the worst in facing this issue.

 It has among the weakest involuntary treatment laws and is one of only six states that doesn’t have a law permitting court-ordered “assisted outpatient treatment.” In study after study, AOT has been shown to decrease re-hospitalizations, incarcerations and, most importantly, episodes of violence among severely mentally ill individuals.

Will Vice President Biden address this issue in his report which is due before January’s State of the Union address?  Or will he propose some liberal “feels good” legislation that once again sweeps the mental health aspect of these tragedies under the carpet?

The ironic piece of this is that those who proclaim to care for all Americans seem to be the first to seek any fix for the problem except caring for the tormented minds of those who commit these atrocities before they commit these atrocities.

 

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

26 Comments

  1. Marilyn on December 19, 2012 at 7:19 pm

    “Ain’t”, sorry mother, that the guy to oversee the?stimulus.? Pick up the rug and get the broom.? Nothing too see here move along.? Another degelate kicking it under the rug.



  2. JBS on December 19, 2012 at 7:50 pm

    Nothing good can come of this. The Gaffer is as anti-gun as Obama. They might as well have put Sarah Brady in charge of this. Mental health will get a mere mention. The “do something” crowd wants a sacrifice. The anti-gunners have been waiting for this tragedy. The scripts have already been written and all that remains is for the puppets to mouth their lines.
    This is the chance that the left has been waiting for: a gun-related tragedy perfect for trotting out their tired rhetoric. The victims weren’t even buried and the likes of Nanny Bloomberg was pledging his fortune to eradicating guns. The fix is in.
    The entire problem rests with the mentally ill not getting the treatment they need. Hey, face it, some people are too crazy to be in society; those few need to be removed so as to not hurt themselves or other people.?
    The left has long been stalking legal, law-abiding, American gun owners. In their utopian thinking, banning all guns will bring peace on Earth. A simplistic sound-bite answer to a very complex question. How to identify and treat the mentally ill among us?
    The losers in all…



    • ricbee on December 19, 2012 at 11:36 pm

      ?The solution is being shown right here in Corrupticut. Hoffman’s is near sold out & every other gun dealer is besieged by buyers. THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN.



  3. JBS on December 19, 2012 at 7:56 pm

    . . . of this knee-jerk “doing good” will be the gun owners (the villains!) and those who need mental health services the most.
    ?
    I know it and you know it. The left knows it also. But, this is politics. They think that they have the moral high ground. They don’t and they know it. But, it’s politics. They want to win at all costs. Banning all guns is the cherished goal of the left and this tragedy has just presented itself.
    How cynical?



  4. buckscorner on December 19, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    It’s all politics. Too bad we don’t have term limits so our reps can vote honestly on the issues instead of trying to please someone to get reelected.

    As for guns, Why cannot we do something that really works? Switzerland has the lowest gun crime rate. All 20-30 year old males of sound mind have military training and keep an assault rifle in their homes. I believe a most important part of the Swiss practice is the training. There is something about going on maneuvers with one’s fellows that builds respect for life and caution in handling weapons.

    The reality is there are bad guys out there. The best posture to prevent crime is a good defense. Duh!



  5. ricbee on December 19, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    Closing the insane asylums was one of the worst liberal ideas ever. Some people need to be shut up in a nice warm place playing Parcheesi.



    • PatRiot on December 20, 2012 at 4:38 pm

      Some one wisely noted that there should be a 10 foot wall put around Washington DC and call it?what it truely is – an asylum.



  6. stinkfoot on December 20, 2012 at 7:53 am

    Exploiting a tragedy to further an agenda of constitutional erosion.



  7. Anne-EH on December 20, 2012 at 8:28 am

    The sad reality is that, for all the gun-related laws that are on the books, and they must be all the more be enforced, what we have seen here was EVIL unleashed and a visable reminder that there is a “spiritual war” that is going on of Heaven vs. Hell.



  8. ilovevice on December 20, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Here at this link?is what you’re not going to read about in the papers.
    You might want to put your seatbelt on.?



    • JBS on December 20, 2012 at 3:12 pm

      I hope this does get media attention.
      Having spent the better part of three decades in schools and various “children’s homes,” it is a sad fact that many students are medicated — overly so –? on doctor’s orders or through self-medication.
      However, it is a complex subject, so, the MSM will probably chase something simpler.



    • Plainvillian on December 23, 2012 at 10:48 am

      The doctor spells out things I’ve suspected for years.? Medicos prescribe psychotropic drugs for often phantom conditions best treated in other ways.? As the doctors states, ADD, ADHD, and other syndromes did not exist 30-40 years ago, nor did the pharmacological treatments they administer so readily.
      That these syndromes have societal causes is evident:? Studies have found NO ADD or ADHD in Amish communities where youthful energies are put to useful purposes.? ??



  9. Lynn on December 20, 2012 at 8:48 am

    Connecticut Valley Hospital used to treat mentally ill patients in a serene and peaceful place. It overlooked the CT River Valley and was beautiful. The hospital had a farm where the patients, nurtured plants and took care of animals. The farm raised the food to feed the patients and there was a movie theater on the grounds that members of the community attended, giving the patients a chance to socialize with those not afflicted. Then the intelligentia decided that this was slave labor and that the patients were better served by lying in a drug induced semi-comatose state. ?Studies now show that playing with dogs and being around animals is therapeutic to the mentally ill. Raising food and being productive offers a chance for patients to become well. Will the intelligentia admit they were wrong? Hell no, or as Dana Perrino says, HE double hockey sticks No.



  10. SeeingRed on December 20, 2012 at 8:59 am

    The country is in the very best of hands.? Plugs Biden ‘directing’ a team investigation?? This is sure to be?a deep dive (not)….



  11. Dimsdale on December 20, 2012 at 10:09 am

    One wonders when the first cringeworthy statement will come out of Biden’s mouth about this.
    ?
    Or will it just be the Jokeresque laughing that he displayed during the VP debates?
    ?
    Nothing says you aren’t serious about this like appointing Biden to head it up.



  12. joe_m on December 20, 2012 at 11:44 am

    This all started with Geraldo Rivera’s expose on Willowbrook. The state abused?mental patients and the media exposed the states abuse. Solution, close all the hospitals. Disperse the abuse, so it does not have the shock value.

    Can’t wait for them to take over healthcare.??



  13. AnnieB on December 20, 2012 at 11:57 am

    In 1927, Andrew Kehoe, a 55-year-old school board member and school caretaker,?killed 45 people?38 children and 7 adults?in a K-12 school in Bath Township, Michigan, by blowing it to smithereens:

    “Then on May 18, 1927, he beat his wife to death. Then he set fire to his farm and drove to the school where he served as caretaker. Kehoe had been busy for more than a year, secretly setting bombs of dynamite and explosive chemicals. He ignited the first wave of bombs, and when townspeople ran to help, he set off the second wave, which claimed his life as well. Authorities later found an unexploded 500-pound bomb in the rubble.”

    It isn’t the guns. It’s the mental illness. As this story proves, arguing about gun control is for themost part moot. As the article puts it, “You can’t argue with evil. And you can’t use rhetoric to protect yourself from a psychopath.”
    The White House hasn’t a clue and never will, because they have their agenda- stop all guns.

    I want us to?just do what we can do?right now?that will protect our kids from psychopaths. The…



  14. AnnieB on December 20, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    What could have been done to stop Adam Lanza, and what can we do, RIGHT NOW?
    Do Not Pass Legislation. Except to allow teachers and retired-police guards to carry firearms at school. Ban those with serious mental hospitalization and/or drug abuse histories from possessing. Otherwise, it will take too long and won’t answer all the problems. Pass the assault/automatic ban later.
    Do Not Collect $100 from Washington to fund anything. Get the bulletproof glass in our schools, get the armed security at their doors and the vehicle-search checkpoint at the perimeter, maybe get a few good & willing, volunteer teachers, male or female, trained, armed and teaching near the entrances. If Newtown, Connecticut can receive donated money and building services within days to tear down Sandy Hook Elementary School and build a memorial to the fallen, surely this…



  15. AnnieB on December 20, 2012 at 12:02 pm

    surely this nation’s citizens and businesses can donate to fund these simple remedies.

    These things would have stopped Adam Lanza.



  16. JollyRoger on December 20, 2012 at 3:38 pm

    Barry has the ultimate wedge issue, and he will pontificate, lie and say whatever it takes to get public opinion around hobbling the 2nd amendment. ?The greatest form of tyranny is public opinion- and the media will surely assist him with that!



  17. SeeingRed on December 21, 2012 at 9:24 am

    Ger-al-do also thinks that reloading a handgun takes longer than an M4 styled gun, and a handgun is more ‘personal’ which would have reduced the carnage.? Sorry to tell you reality-show-reporter, if intent on squeezing off rounds and armed with two, 9mm semis and a dozen full magazines, there would sadly be no difference in the result.??

    Arm our schools somehow (teachers, cops/guards).? Reinforce school entrances.??Slow down the ingress to these easy-prey killing grounds.? They are defenseless and the bad guys have seemed to figured this out.? Just as the Aurora, CO shooter reportedly went to 3 theatres before he stumbled onto one with a ‘no carry in theatres allowed’ sign, Lanza KNEW he would not be challenged as he wrote his ticket to hell.?



  18. WDF on December 21, 2012 at 11:07 am

    The real issue is that many, very influential, gun “control” advocates really want gun elimination not control!
    ?
    Responsible gun owners and advocates have seen this and know it is true. When they have had the ability to do so gun “control” advocates have passed laws that, for all intents, eliminates guns from all but police and “cronies”. They take the tactic of “sensible” legislation that even the most ardent gun advocates would agree to except that the “control” advocated continue with more control, inch by inch until there is literally complete ban.
    ?
    If gun advocates could be assured there would be no more than reasonable restrictions they would agree but no assurance of gun rights stops the “control” advocates to complete elimination. As evidence we have an amendment to the constitution guaranteeing rights but have seen how inch by inch “reasonable control” has eliminated guns, look at Illinois, Washington D.C., Etc., Etc. And yet, even with the constitution on their side guns are eliminated, not “controlled”.
    ?
    So, gun owners hate to give up that first inch since it leads to…



    • stinkfoot on December 21, 2012 at 11:17 am

      Therein lies the implicit mandate of the so-called task force… exploit the tragedy to make progress in their greater agenda of taking away our right to bear arms; an objective that had furnished the considerable challenge of how to mask the true aims- until Newtown handed them a cause to shed crocodile tears over while privately celebrating the gift of another crisis not to be wasted.



  19. yeah on December 23, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Obama & Co are more than happy to exploit a tragedy, especially since its all they dreamed about with fast & furious.



  20. sammy22 on December 23, 2012 at 4:24 pm

    I agree with what Krauthammer has written. But then, the Right and the Left have drawn their lines in the sand. They are so far apart that nothing of substance will happen. Get ready for the next one.



  21. JBS on December 24, 2012 at 8:02 am

    Nothing good can come of this.



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