Along similar lines; Aussie's and others with gun control.. mental institutions?

[Ken73]

I was reading through the thread about Australian gun confiscation and wondered;

Do they have as many crazy people as we do? From my understanding, the US doesn't have mental institutions like we used to. Apparently some time in the early 90's they began to phase them out? Obviously it's two types of people that are committing these heinous acts of violence - petty criminals (many who are either on illegal drugs, or want illegal drugs) and in the case of most of the larger mass shootings, people who are insane or on some sort of (prescribed, legal) psychotropic drug.

I don't want to go into the idiosyncrasies of drug types, culture, etc; I'm curious if other countries have better control around their mentally disturbed population, and the treatments for them. My wife does quite a bit of research on medical conditions and found that some other countries don't treat their mental patients with drugs, rather natural remedies - and it appears to work without the side affects.

I think the reality is, there are quite a few people here in the US that have mental problems, and the drug companies push treatments that have side affects that aren't fully understood. I know for a fact that drug companies here in the US push doctors to use their drug whether it's truly beneficial or not.

If you'll excuse me, I have a tractor with a cold seat that needs warming. :laughing:

 

[Ken45101]

They started fazing out the mental hospitals back in the 1970's, dumping the patients out on the street.

I will agree that I don't think anyone knows all the side effects of some of the drug treatments. I've heard some stories about some of the mass murderers being on psychotic drugs.

 

[leveled]

Here is a link to a site that has collected data from articles on prescribed drug side effects.

Index to SSRI Stories

 

[300UGUY]

I was reading through the thread about Australian gun confiscation and wondered;

Do they have as many crazy people as we do? From my understanding, the US doesn't have mental institutions like we used to. Apparently some time in the early 90's they began to phase them out? Obviously it's two types of people that are committing these heinous acts of violence - petty criminals (many who are either on illegal drugs, or want illegal drugs) and in the case of most of the larger mass shootings, people who are insane or on some sort of (prescribed, legal) psychotropic drug.

I don't want to go into the idiosyncrasies of drug types, culture, etc; I'm curious if other countries have better control around their mentally disturbed population, and the treatments for them. My wife does quite a bit of research on medical conditions and found that some other countries don't treat their mental patients with drugs, rather natural remedies - and it appears to work without the side affects.

I think the reality is, there are quite a few people here in the US that have mental problems, and the drug companies push treatments that have side affects that aren't fully understood. I know for a fact that drug companies here in the US push doctors to use their drug whether it's truly beneficial or not.

If you'll excuse me, I have a tractor with a cold seat that needs warming. :laughing:

Comes down to money, specifically, tax dollars. Housing and treating the mentally ill is very expensive. Nobody wants to pay for it.

 

[tcartwri]

It's debateable that the Sandy Hook shooter would have been institutionalised even if it was freely available. My elder cousin has a similar level of disability from aspergers and he has lived his entire adult life on his own. He's 63 now. Brilliant mind, but a complete innability to interact with society. Two masters degrees... the ability to memorise an entire phone book. He was suspended from high school when it was discovered that he had memorised dozens of locker combinations, just by watching from nearbye.

 

[Ken73]

It's debateable that the Sandy Hook shooter would have been institutionalised even if it was freely available. My elder cousin has a similar level of disability from aspergers and he has lived his entire adult life on his own. He's 63 now. Brilliant mind, but a complete innability to interact with society. Two masters degrees... the ability to memorise an entire phone book. He was suspended from high school when it was discovered that he had memorised dozens of locker combinations, just by watching from nearbye.

I don't doubt that the Sandy Hook massacre would still have happened, but others may have been prevented (and may be prevented in the future.) Seems like a lot (if not all) of these occurrences are perpetrated by mentally unstable people. One of my thoughts was to apply a small tax on all firearms and ammo sales that goes to helping those people. If it's spread across all firearms and ammo, it should be relatively small. Of course, we also have the highest incarceration rate here in the US from what I understand, and the private prison system makes gobs of money off that.

 

[Ken45101]

One of my thoughts was to apply a small tax on all firearms and ammo sales that goes to helping those people. If it's spread across all firearms and ammo, it should be relatively small.

WHY, WHY, WHY tax the firearms community???? Mental health is a general society problem. If you think the firearms community should pay for mental health, then it appears that you think firearms are responsible for mental health problems. They are not!

Of course, we also have the highest incarceration rate here in the US from what I understand, and the private prison system makes gobs of money off that.

We have (IMO) a very high incarceration rate because we have a drug problem. Too many people (in government and out) make a lot of money from our drug problem. They do not want it to go away, it would take their goldmine away and their power. The "War on Drugs" has not cured anything but it sure has made many people rich and powerful, on both sides of the law.

Probably 80-90% of our court and jail "guests" are because of drugs.

 

[Ken73]

WHY, WHY, WHY tax the firearms community???? Mental health is a general society problem. If you think the firearms community should pay for mental health, then it appears that you think firearms are responsible for mental health problems. They are not!

Fair enough, scratch that idea. I definitely don't want to blame firearms for mental instability. If anything it's the opposite! LOL Any suggestions on how we bring back mental health institutions?

The "war on drugs" is a joke, I agree.

 

[art]

A person in the seventies saw at 17-18 what a child see's today at 11-12 thanks to the boob tube and computers. I imagine that on a new mind things are seen far different and some things are felt more exceptable. We could blame the electronics world, or maybe the parents for allowing it.