Mental Illness vs. Guns

There's a mass shooting in America far too often. People are angry, raging even; perhaps this world is not as easy as it once looked when we grew up. It's divided deep along political and social lines; these divides won't be mended anytime soon as the world, especially America, becomes more and more polarized with their issues of importance.

Often after these mass shootings, the topic of sane gun control and policy come up and are immediately batted down in favor of talking about trying to fix the mental illness problem in America. But nothing is done on that front; what really can be done on that front?

How do you really fix mental illness? Many mentally ill individuals would never seek out help in the first place; so what do you do, ask everyone, everyday, how they feel and keep prodding them to see if they snap? Maybe you put everyone in therapy, let psychologists and psychiatrists line their pockets with cash.

It's also worth recalling that mental help is not free, it costs money; in some cases, lots of money. 

If you place yourself on a three day hold at the hospital, you can expect to leave with a bill for a few thousand dollars and that's AFTER insurance pays some. 

Go to a psychiatrist? That's money for them and their pills. 

Go to a psychologist? That's money for them and their time.

When I struggled, I did actually have the mental state of mind to check myself in somewhere. When I left, I had to sign a document declaring that I wouldn't purchase a gun for the next five years; to protect myself and others. That seems fair. Depressed, angry, bitter people with guns? Not wise.

But most wouldn't check themselves in, they're in a far worse state of mind then I was ever in; disturbed individuals that do need help but how do the disturbed seek their own help?

This article, explains the folly in blaming mental illness for mass shooting tragedies.

"One is that there's no real way of predicting a mass shooting. Mass shootings are very often statistical anomalies. The trouble people get into a lot of times is that they think, "Oh, he must have been crazy or something, and a psychiatrist should have been able to see him before and predict it." That's a complete miss, unfortunately."

That line assumes there is a psychiatrist in everyone's life but that is most likely not the case and, with the population as high as it is, no one is there waiting with a towel to wrap you up and make you feel good - you must get the help yourself. This isn't Andy Griffith-time where everyone is in everyone else's business; if you need help, you yourself have to have the drive to get it.

But how can the mentally ill be expected to, essentially, turn themselves in?