re: #93 Charles Johnson

NPR just reported that psychosis is not a factor in most mass shootings. So yes, we do need better mental health care, but I’m not sure it really will do much to prevent these kinds of horrible crimes.

He carried three handguns into an elementary school and apparently emptied all of them. Our society is what needs mental health care — this is insane that we allow this to happen.

True, the mass shooters are usually not psychotic, but there are many kinds of mental and emotional disturbance that are factors and that professional care and counseling can address. The shooters are often asocial, angry, and frustrated, and develop dangerous fantasies as a coping mechanism. I have to wonder how many potential massacres are prevented when disturbed, angry people do get help. There is no way to know but it would almost certainly be more with better access. This is a matter of life and death and I think it should be a big part of the debate that will inevitably follow this atrocity.