An old, crazy man shoots up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, killing three and injuring several more. People will blame guns. He could as easily have rammed the people with his car.
The real issue is our decision in the 1960s not to institutionalize the insane. They live among us in their tens of thousands and several times a year one snaps and begins killing people.
I understand the civil rights argument for giving people the right to be "different" and not locking up everyone a little strange. Most such never do anything more than behave, or opine, somewhat oddly.
Most don't, a few do, and we''re not very adept at detecting a priori who will and won't turn violent toward others. Time was, we rounded them all up and warehoused them in asylums. And yes, those were grim places.
Similar places wouldn't need to be so grim today since we can control the more egregious behavior with meds which "work" in the sense that they rein in the weirdness. What they don't do is "cure" the underlying problem, so the treatment is palliative and must be continuous to be effective.
Sadly, those suffering mental maladies often don't like how dull their meds make them feel and won't take them if not monitored. This is particularly an issue with bi-polar individuals who miss the natural highs of that condition.
Since there is no realistic way to keep lethal objects out of the hands of the insane, perhaps we should consider keeping the insane where they cannot commit mass murder. Alternatively, we need to learn to accept the random violence we currently experience as "a cost of doing business in the preferred (maximum civil liberties) way."
