by Jack
It’s hard to find anything new to add to what has already been said, except that this case is a mental health issue, not a gun issue.
There was a time when a person could be placed in an institution fairly easily by a police officer, a family member or a conservator, even if they were not an obvious threat to their own safety or the safety of others. Those days are long gone and I wonder, if in the process to protect the rights of the insane, we’ve not gone too far and placed society at risk? I’ve seen too many mentally ill people on the streets doing terrible harm to themselves and that’s a shame.
No matter where we choose to draw the line, between that forced lock up on one side and absolute freedom to roam on the other, you know it’s going to result in an injustice. Either to the mentally ill person or to society who deserves to be protected. There is no perfect medium here, but we have to try to find that balance point, where we’ve done the best that we could to be fair and responsible and protect society from James Holmes (upper left), or Jared Loughner (see right) or crazies like Howard Barton Unruh. He killed 13 people as he walked the streets of Camden, NJ in a psychotic 1949 shooting
spree that was the nation’s worst mass murder at the time.
Personally, I would like to commit everyone who thinks this is about gun control, and imposing more restrictions on the law abiding, because that’s clearly nuts and represents an extreme danger to our society. I would start by locking up Diane Feinstien (who carries a gun with a permit), Gov. Harry Romer and Rep. Maxine Waters…they are all nuts that pose a great threat to our well being, if not the Constitution! (Hint…this part was blatant sarcasm)
That was my first impression too, Jack. How could it not be with such an unbelievable event. But listening to prosecutors today making the case for premeditated murder gave me pause. I still think he is insane but I don’t want the fact that he planned this carefully to be brushed aside either. He apparetly made no attempt to escape…was it fame he wanted? And how sick is that?
I’ve mentioned this before, but for the benefit of newer readers an insane person can be held accountable if during his psychotic episode he believed he was doing something wrong. For instance a crazy man shoots someone because he believes he is the Devil, he could be merely institutionalized. But, if he believed the person he was shooting was the President, he could get life in prison or even the death penalty under some rare circumstances.