It's Easy to Place Blame

Here it goes again: it's the schools and/or it's the failure of the mental health system and/or it's the fault of a military recruiter. A young person, who cannot handle his own life and apparently has a limited adult support system in his world view, carries a weapon into a public place and shoots to kill. We ALL saw it coming after the fact, so we begin to place the blame: if the schools knew this person had problems, why didn't THEY do something? if the recruiter knew that he was mentally unfit for duty, why didn't HE do something? if the parents knew their son had problems, why didn't THEY do something?

He dropped out of high school: THAT should have been a red flag! Yeah, it probably was another red flag in this person's life, but his was probably a life filled with red flags. School personnel can ask questions, voice concerns behind closed doors, request that the school counselor talks to the student, but cannot legally do much unless the parent is a willing participant in the process. Why blame the schools for the failure of society to deal with real issues in a real way?

Ah-ha: his community college told him to leave and not come back until he had his personal issues under control. Bingo: it's the college's fault that he committed the heinous crime yesterday! We seem to forget that, in this country, once a child celebrates the 18th birthday, s/he is legally an adult and protected by privacy laws. A 22-year-old man can be involuntarily committed for mental health evaluation, but first -- he has to do something that requires that step to be taken. Acting weird, inflammatory writing in a class assignment, and challenging authority do not rise to the level of immediate action required, according to our Constitution.

Oh, wait!! There's another agency in line for blame: the military. This criminal tried to enlist in the military and was denied: mental issues. Why didn't that recruiter hand him off directly to mental health? Why didn't that person put his career on the line to forestall what this applicant may do sometime in his future? Because the applicant is an adult who has the legal right to his mental health issues: he can request treatment and he can refuse treatment, but it is not until he actually does something that any agency can take direct action to intervene.

And, God forbid, if the parents knew the child was mentally ill, why didn't THEY do something about it? I suspect that the majority of parents chalk up abberent behavior to just being a typical teen, not to the awareness that a child may be mentally ill and harm himself and/or others. I'm sure that they are as shocked by their son's actions yesterday as the rest of us, and are looking back to see what they missed, what they could have done to prevent their son's actions yesterday.

Maybe it takes a shocking public execution of a federal judge, the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, the senseless murder of 5 civilians and the life-threating injuries to another dozen people to start the conversation about necessary changes in the way we are legally allowed to do something. We are handcuffed by individual rights that deny the rights of the community and the citizens who speak up. It is wrong when a citizen calls for assistance and is told that nothing can be done until/unless a crime has been committed.

Well, the crime has been committed. Again.

Rather than placing blame after the fact for failing to fix the kid, perhaps the lesson in this shocking violence is to change the way we look at the rights of the community to protect itself, not just in assigning 24/7 protection to members of Congress. We all put our lives on the line every single day because we live in a time when we are forced to be reactive, rather than proactive about crime. We, the people, deserve the same protection in our lives as our elected officials, but if that's where it has to start, then let the conversations and, hopefully, the changes begin.

Now. Let's not wait for the inevitable next time.