… is much on people’s minds as they try to get a grip on the Tucson killings. In a New Republic piece, William Galston (a friend of Mr UD‘s) notes that
The story repeats itself, over and over. A single narrative connects the Unabomber, George Wallace shooter Arthur Bremmer, Reagan shooter John Hinckley, the Virginia Tech shooter—all mentally disturbed loners who needed to be committed and treated against their will. But the law would not permit it.
As with Jared Lee Loughner, so with Seung-Hui Cho — both had generated enormous anxiety and fear among their professors and fellow students.
Galston concludes:
[T]hose who acquire credible evidence of an individual’s mental disturbance should be required to report it to both law enforcement authorities and the courts, and the legal jeopardy for failing to do so should be tough enough to ensure compliance. Parents, school authorities, and other involved parties should be made to understand that they have responsibilities to the community as a whole, not just to family members or to their own student body. While embarrassment and reluctance to get involved are understandable sentiments, they should not be allowed to drive conduct when the public safety is at stake. We’re not necessarily cramming these measures down anyone’s throat: I’ve known many families who were desperate for laws that would help them do what they knew needed to be done for their adult children, and many college administrators who felt that their hands were tied.
January 11th, 2011 at 10:39AM
There is a big difference between reducing or minimizing the potential liability for reporting a suspected dangerous person, on the one hand, and establishing civil liability or criminal penalties for failing to do so, on the other. The second does in fact represent “cramming these measures down someone’s throat” and opens the door to all kinds of potential witch-hunts and abuse.
January 11th, 2011 at 11:31AM
Galston doesn’t realize how often it goes the other way. My sister does pre-committment assessments, and says that more often than not, when a family brings someone in, it’s the family with the problem, not the person she’s examining.
The nut in Arizona hadn’t done anything to warrant involuntary commitment. He spoke out of turn in class, was socially awkward, and gave people the creeps. Those aren’t grounds for anything. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes people don’t display real symptoms until the big one- you’re just fine, until that aneurysm pops, or until you go on a shooting spree. It’s unfortunate, but that’s life.
January 11th, 2011 at 7:55PM
When I was a youngster, I was given this hypothetical: You have 100 people, one of whom is a violent murderer. You cannot ascertain who he is in these 100 people. What do you do? Do you set them all free or do you detain them all?
I was taught that my society would release them all because it was not right to detain 99 innocent people due to the behavior of one man. And I was taught that Soviet society would detain them all because the behavior of that one individual outweighed everyone else’s rights.
Today we seem to be going more and more to that Soviet style philosophy. Mental health experts cannot predict who will and who will not murder in the future. They have no test for that and they can only make “educated” guesses. But they will be quick to deny 100 people their rights to make sure that one individual does not go free, after all it gives them a market to sell their drugs of dubious benefits. (A favorite topic here on UD.)
That this sort of violence can occur just simply seems to be one of the drawbacks of living in a free society and as bfa says, That’s life.
January 13th, 2011 at 8:50AM
If it were not legal for individuals to own assault handguns and to carry them concealed without a permit, people with this type of mental instability (whether identified and treated or not)would not be able to cause such great damage as Loughner did.
February 14th, 2023 at 7:39AM
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