The factor Americans blame most today remains failure by the mental health system to identify people who might be a danger to others. Eighty-three percent of U.S. adults say this contributes a great deal or fair amount to mass shootings, about the same as the 80% from six years ago.There exists nothing you’d recognize as a “mental health system” today. We once had large, well-populated state-run mental hospitals (and almost no homeless).
Now we either imprison dysfunctional individuals as felons - after they’ve done something bad enough and been convicted - or let them live free, often as homeless. Neither is a good choice for people with broken minds or for our society.
A few of the mentally ill become mass murderers. Most are a pain in the backside for society, one way or another. If we can legally quarantine those with communicable illness, why not those whose mental dysfunction precludes minimally acceptable citizenship?
