re: #295 BryanS

True—and that should be an issue I think we debate. Why was there no legal tool with which to respond to the likes of Loughner? What kind of tools can or should we give police to be able to handle this in the future. It just feels like there were so many warning signs, and there was nothing we could do about it.

Well, it’s thorny for good reason. As Obdicut and i mentioned on another thread, mental illness of itself (i.e. absent substance abuse or other environmental triggers) is actually not a very significant predictor of violent behavior.

In other words, if you are the victim of an attack by a stranger, the stranger is not significantly more likely to be mentally ill than the population would otherwise suggest.

So while mental illness can indeed be the root cause of a violent act, it is currently almost impossible to predict which mentally ill folks (who haven’t yet shown overt violent behavior or are taking drugs) present an actual danger.

That’s the rub…or at least, that’s one of the rubs.