‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

[Glocktogo]

Which countries should be mentioned? I wonder why he didn't bring them up. Is the frequency statistic the reporter mentioned incorrect?

That's the lie by omission. In countries where guns have been banned for decades or longer, felonious deaths by other means rise. He should be comparing the frequency of knife or blunt object or vehicle killings.

The root cause has far more to do with the changes in mental health treatment back in the late 70's and early 80's. Another significant factor is the daily pressure of today's society. They are FAR different from those back when mental health treatment was more custodial. Coupled together, the rise in mass shootings where someone goes off the deep end should be understandable and more importantly, predictable. Focusing on a key component of American freedon as the cause is ridiculous on the face of it. The very same people doing so are the ones who championed the changes in mental health treatment several decades ago, and of course they could never be wrong about something.

 

[MCVetSteve]

That's the lie by omission. In countries where guns have been banned for decades or longer, felonious deaths by other means rise. He should be comparing the frequency of knife or blunt object or vehicle killings.

The root cause has far more to do with the changes in mental health treatment back in the late 70's and early 80's. Another significant factor is the daily pressure of today's society. They are FAR different from those back when mental health treatment was more custodial. Coupled together, the rise in mass shootings where someone goes off the deep end should be understandable and more importantly, predictable. Focusing on a key component of American freedon as the cause is ridiculous on the face of it. The very same people doing so are the ones who championed the changes in mental health treatment several decades ago, and of course they could never be wrong about something.

What changes in mental treatment occurred in the 70s and 80s? I was either not around, or not old enough to care. I was almost four when the eighties ended. So for those of us who don't know, please inform us?

 

[henschman]

Of course here in the U.S. we have experienced a lot less democide than Asia, Africa, and certainly Europe.

 

[Billybob]

What changes in mental treatment occurred in the 70s and 80s? I was either not around, or not old enough to care. I was almost four when the eighties ended. So for those of us who don't know, please inform us?

The Feds quit feathering the "cuckoo's nest"...

"Massive deinstitutionalization in the 1970s and 1980s, well before communities had organized reasonable community services, contributed to neglect of people with mental illnesses and homelessness. Major changes in mental health law made coercive interventions less possible. Some commentators in the media saw this as “crazy on the streets” and “rotting with one’s rights on.” Although we already had some reasonably effective antipsychotic and antidepressant medications, they had many serious side effects, patients found them aversive, and nonadherence to medication was rampant. Residence in the community also allowed access to street drugs and alcohol, resulting in substantial increases in psychiatric and substance abuse comorbidities. These patients posed serious treatment and management problems and were increasingly arrested and jailed..."

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/26/6/1548.full

 

[Glocktogo]

What changes in mental treatment occurred in the 70s and 80s? I was either not around, or not old enough to care. I was almost four when the eighties ended. So for those of us who don't know, please inform us?

Are you sure you really want to jump into the deep end? Here goes:

Remember these two names:

Dr. Thomas Szasz
Kate Millett

They are undoubtedly the father and mother of the deinstitutionaization movement in the 70's and 80's.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/commentary/millett-no-gun-ever-killed-anyone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Szasz

http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas_d.html

http://www.narpa.org/webdoc6.htm

http://www.serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/3303

A good personal account:

http://www.claytoncramer.com/My Brother Ron Teaser.pdf

 

[Billybob]

Should repeal of the Mental Health Systems Act in 1980 be mentioned? Or the other predominate change in the treatment of mental illness?

In the meantime, psychodynamics, and especially psychoanalysis, which had dominated psychiatric practice in earlier years, lost much of its currency, and psychiatry moved closer to medicine, to the neurosciences, and to biological factors. Medication and short, focused psychotherapy, such as cognitive therapy, replaced much of the earlier Freudian and psychodynamic emphasis. The period 1990–2000 was declared the decade of the brain, and research in the neurosciences was favored. During this period Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibiters (SSRIs) dominated treatment of depression. Although no more effective than earlier antidepressants, they were more acceptable to patients and doctors, and their use increased threefold. Primary care physicians now more commonly medicated patients for depression and anxiety, although this often was inconsistent with practice standards.

New atypical antipsychotic drugs were also introduced and aggressively marketed by pharmaceutical companies as more effective and more benign than earlier medications. Psychiatric pharmaceuticals have become a massive business, but recent rigorous clinical trials do not support the optimistic claims of increased effectiveness or benign side effects. Medication adherence remains an enormous problem. Medication costs are now the largest component of Medicaid spending for people with mental illnesses. The involvement of pharmaceutical companies in almost every aspect of mental health treatment-including clinical trials, professional education, physician and direct-to-consumer advertising, professional meetings, and designing diagnostic practices and practice standards-raises many concerns about the reliability of the medical literature and practice patterns.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/26/6/1548.full

What did we learn in a recent thread about shooters and aggression side effects of SSRIs?

 

[LightningCrash]

That's the lie by omission. In countries where guns have been banned for decades or longer, felonious deaths by other means rise. He should be comparing the frequency of knife or blunt object or vehicle killings.

The root cause has far more to do with the changes in mental health treatment back in the late 70's and early 80's. Another significant factor is the daily pressure of today's society. They are FAR different from those back when mental health treatment was more custodial. Coupled together, the rise in mass shootings where someone goes off the deep end should be understandable and more importantly, predictable. Focusing on a key component of American freedon as the cause is ridiculous on the face of it. The very same people doing so are the ones who championed the changes in mental health treatment several decades ago, and of course they could never be wrong about something.

So can we visit the last, say, 10 or so "mass shootings" and attribute it to the 70s/80s change? How would those scenarios have played out differently in the early 70s?

 

[tRidiot]

So can we visit the last, say, 10 or so "mass shootings" and attribute it to the 70s/80s change? How would those scenarios have played out differently in the early 70s?

Our problem is myraid.

We are way too prosperous. Too much excess, too much instant gratification, too little hard work, too little actual hardship. Too much "me" and too much entitlement philosophy. Too little actual real help for mental problems. Wide access to firearms, yes, but those are a vehicle to vent the frustrations. Let's face it, if every gun in the US simply vanished, does anyone with the intelligence and honesty to be real actually believe all these homicidal/suicidal whackadoos would simply cease being homicidal/suicidal whackadoos? I don't believe so. Not by a long shot.

Simply throwing meds at people with mental health problems isn't going to fix any of it. The treatment for many of these mental health disorders should be multi-disciplinary, and it should be long-term, and it should focus on skills and coping mechanisms and analysis and just simple LIFE. In other words, all the stuff parents were supposed to be doing all these years. Instead, it's going to be up to .gov to take over that largest of industries, and they're going to **** it up royally while dumping gazillions into it... which is what the .gov does to every industry it touches.

 

[Glocktogo]

So can we visit the last, say, 10 or so "mass shootings" and attribute it to the 70s/80s change? How would those scenarios have played out differently in the early 70s?

You can't say definitively, but let's take Jared Loughner's case. Most likely his case wouln't have happened, because he'd have been institutionalized for violent schizophrenia. It's possible that Adam Lanza would've been the same way, though with less certainty.

I have first hand experience with this and in that era. My uncle was schizophrenic. He spent several stints in Eastern State Mental Hospital in Miami, OK. He was the nicest guy in the world, when he was on his meds. When he got to thinking he was all better and went off his meds, you didn't want to be anywhere near him. It was 'effin scary as hell.

Back then it was possible to get someone with a dangerous mental condition off the streets before they hurt themselves or someone else. Post 1980's, it's MUCH more difficult. From the street officer to the FBI, everyone I work with who has to work with EDP's knows it's an uphill battle. Detain the subject for safety, call COPES, wait forever for some underpaid counselor(s) to come and do a brief assessment, during which the subject has had time to calm down and recognize that if they don't play nice in front of the counselor, they'll go on a 72 hour hold at someplace like Laureate and so on... So they straighten up for the counselors and avoid the hold. Absent a criminal act to lock them up at county on, they're released own recognizance. How many subsequent calls are made after that? LOTS.

Further, the homeless population EXPLODED once they turned out all the mental institutions. People who couldn't function in society were suddenly without a viable support structure. They were sent back to families ill equipped to handle them. Most couldn't hold down jobs, maintain normal healthy relationships and simply preferred to walk away. They went to the streets and never left. they become a danger to themselves, passeerby and their fellow homeless. It's truly sad how we've failed these people.

I'm not saying I'm for locking everyone up against their will, but the system we have now is truly broken. It serves no one's best interests. We should try to do better.

 

[farmerbyron]

Interesting that the satire site has veered so close to reality that you cannot tell the difference

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
News in Brief • guns • violence • News • ISSUE 50•21 • May 27, 2014

[Broken External Image]

ISLA VISTA, CA-In the days following a violent rampage in southern California in which a lone attacker killed seven individuals, including himself, and seriously injured over a dozen others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said North Carolina resident Samuel Wipper, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this guy from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what he really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past five years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”

source

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/10/obama-reveals-his-biggest-frustration-as-president-the-country-has-to-do-some-soul-searching-about-this/

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that his chief frustration as president is that American society has refused to adopt stronger gun control measures.

“People ask me what I’m proudest of and what are my biggest frustrations as president,” Obama said. “My biggest frustration is that this society hasn’t been willing to take some basic steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who can do damage.”

“We’re the only developed country where this happens. And it happens weekly,” he continued. “Our levels of gun violence are off the charts.”

The president suggested that an individual’s ability to purchase large amounts of ammunition has resulted in mass shootings.

“You know, the United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people. It’s not the only country that has psychosis. And yet, we kill each other in these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than any place else,” Obama said, according to BuzzFeed. “Well, what’s the difference? The difference is, is that these guys can stack up a bunch of ammunition in their houses and that’s sort of par for the course.”

He added, “The country has to do some soul searching about this.”

Obama’s comments came in response to a question just hours after a deadly shooting claimed the life of a student at an Oregon high school.