‘Real News’: CT Shooting Puts the Spotlight on Mental Health Reform

Dec. 17, 2012 8:01pm Christopher Santarelli

Three days since Friday’s horrific shooting in Connecticut, America has had time to reflect on the crime, the ability within some Americans to commit such evil, and what is being done on a national and community level to prevent these tragedies from happening again in the future. President Obama spoke at a vigil in Newtown, Connecticut, Sunday night where he stated that this was the fourth time he’s had to deal with a mass shooting like this while he’s been president, as we have seen similar instances of headline-grabbing gun violence over the last four years at a Congresswoman’s district event in Arizona, a movie theatre in Colorado, and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

Beyond the weapons used to commit the heinous acts, Friday’s shooter Adam Lanza shares similarities with people like Aurora, Colorado, shooter James Holmes– a troubled mental state, exceptional intelligence and parents that were helpless to stop them. A former baby sitter of Lanza’s is claiming that his mother told him not to turn his back on her son for one second.

Why does it seem that mass shootings like this are on the rise even when violence overall is down? Are not enough gun control laws or state-sponsored support for the mentally ill to blame? If mental health reform is the answer where do we start? Watch the opening segment from ‘Real News‘ Monday discussing this question of mental health reform with Dr. Bart Rossi of the Rossi Psychological Group:

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Comments (6)

NAFTANot
Posted on December 18, 2012 at 4:09pm
First, I want to say a whole-hearted “a-men” to what witness1974 said.The society has been so brainwashed by the liberals about how to respond to wrongdoing that everything is upside down. You now have to be afraid to defend yourself for fear of being punished more than the perpetrator, whether it is a home invasion or bullying at school. Relating that to mental health, my son has Asperger’s Syndrome. When he was in the public school for 1 year and 1 month, he was constantly bullied. They didn’t even know that he had AS, but they called him names, pushed him around, and threatened to knife or shoot him. Do you know what the adults did, who, by the way, I had taught my son to look to for help in such situations? They said, “Just deal with it”. or “just stand there and don’t do anything to defend yourself and it will go away”. Because he didn’t do that, but stood up for himself, he was constantly being punished and sat in the principal’s office instead of hearing classroom instruction. Now, I am having some major problems with him and have sought for help with the psychiatric community, but they all say that the only way for them to put my son in a foster or group home for awhile is for me to press charges against my son, who is 15. Wouldn’t you think that if I’m telling them there is a problem that needs attention, they would reach out to help before it got to the police? It isn’t that easy to get help for a loved one with AS, who has a developmental dis

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DMENTED
Posted on December 18, 2012 at 5:28am
Now if they’ll only focus on DC, where it’s needed the most.

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- JRook
  Posted on December 18, 2012 at 10:30am
  What I love about this concern for mental health services and Joe “punk” Pags concern for a police presence and heightened security in the schools is the complete disconnect from the anti-tax rhetoric. Schools are now at the point of cutting real programs and charging fees for everything from participating in sports $450 and up in many communities in Ohio and actually charge kids a fee for participating in the school play and playing in the school band. Where is the notion of citizenship, where is the notion of community. The self indulgent, me me me stance of the baby boomers and the “me” generation behind them is nothing more than “I got mine, let them figure it out themselves” Despite the fact my grandparents and parents paid higher taxes so that I had good schools and reduced college costs….. I don’t want to spend my money helping the community. I’ll pay for my kids college and the hell with the rest of them. Citizenship is the notion of paying it forward so that the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the people who subsidized your schooling, parks, college, etc. are provided with the same.
  
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raderby
Posted on December 18, 2012 at 5:22am
yeah, “REAL NEWS” – let’s have more gov’t to solve something. How about keeping the ACLU out of anyone’s business?

I think all the “REAL NEWS” people were not born or were in diapers when the gov’ts, spurred on by reporter sob stories by people like Geraldo, started dumping all the mentally ill and indigent onto the streets. Rightly or wrongly, that was a major source of the “homeless”.
Unforeseen consequences of leftist do-gooder laws and regs….

So now we need to blah blah blah and law and regulate up to be able to have a tighter grip on the dangerously crazy in our society?

NOT MORE GOV’T, thanks. More informed observation and response. That doesn’t need gov’t, except to keep out of the way- it requires care and commitment, which have been in short supply for decades.

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NOTMOHAMMED
Posted on December 18, 2012 at 5:04am
The spotlight should be put on family members who keep quiet about the true murderous potential of the INSANE family member too. His mother KNEW, as did Loughner’s mother AND father. It’s only natural for a parent to love their children, but for the RIGHT reasons. I wouldn’t keep a child (even my own) in my house if I knew they were a potential threat to me. Lanza’s single divorced mother may have been hanging on to the nut for child support reasons.

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Witness1974
Posted on December 18, 2012 at 3:57am
Mental health reform may be worth taking a look at, but it is not at all what is needed. To put it concisely, we need to change our minds in this country. In every society blood will be spilled. It is up to us to decide whether or not the majority of it will be innocent blood or if we will finally get to the point where we see that there is evil in the world and it must be overcome, whether by reason, or by force. We need to punish the guilty so that good can flourish. For instance, Murderers, rapists, and child molesters need to pay for their crimes with their lives, not by undergoing counseling and gang indoctrination. We need to face the fact that what used to be the justice system has become a legal system which is complicit in the spread of domestic terror. The policians and journalists will tell us it’s time to “reform” our mental health system, whatever that means, and to take guns away. But, what needs to happen is nearly the opposite: Make sure more law abiding citizens have guns and know how to use them; quit asking questions about criminals’ motives and start giving them what their tyrannical acts deserve. We need to resolve that in america we will spill the blood of the guilty and protect the innocent. As of now we have it so backwards that I doubt there is enough moral fiber in this nation to do what needs to be done–fair and speedy trials, just and swift execution of sentences.

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