The Blame Game

Who’s to blame for the Tucson shootings? Isn’t this the exercise we always engage in when these things occur? Has it helped?

The most visible target in this round seems to be inflammatory rhetoric found in media, on the internet, etc. Is that where responsibility lies? Over ten years ago, I presented a paper that linked the internet to the Kehoe Brothers shootout and their affiliated groups. My position was that the web doesn’t derange people, but it has facilitated the coalescing of the aberrant so they can validate, reinforce and incite each other. The web isn’t the root problem, but it does amplify it.

But, neither the interaction nor the disseminated rhetoric creates the problem. Freedom of speech and channels of communication are an asset and you take the bad with the good.

People knew he was insane. They should’ve done something about it. There are two points here.

Did people know this? The shooter’s web site was replete with malice, delusion and the other earmarks of a diseased mind. Anyone could recognize this as symptomatic except, perhaps, those who share his mental disease and view acrimony as normal. He had repeated conflicts in school and with other groups, rendering himself a virtual pariah. Again, you don’t need a doctorate in psychology to read the entrails here. So, I concede that part of it. But what should “they” have done?

The rights we’ve legislated protect him from people initiating action or even expressing the concern. It’s an obstacle course to do so, fraught with consequences for those who act. Most will think more than twice before making the effort or taking the risk.

And, if they did, what remedies are available? We’ve defunded many state mental hospitals and other resident facilities. The most prominent segment of the mentally diseased lie, cheat, steal, commit violence and abuse drugs. They do not create a sympathetic image for either the allocation of tax support of fundraising. And, even where mechanisms still exist, many have regressed to political footballs for incompetent bureaucrats and profit-driven “charities” to skim off treatment dollars for their own benefit. So, there are few solutions available for him, until he actually pulls the trigger.

This is where we fail to connect the dots and solve the problem. If the greater portion of assassinations, school shoot-ups, etc., is committed by mentally diseased individuals, then treat the illness. Design a system that identifies and treats at the earliest stages and make it easily accessible. Make it efficient, effective and worthy of funding.

Where will that money come from? We need to educate people about the problem and the solution, which tend to get swept under the rug. People won’t support what’s hidden.

And by the way, celebrities have no problem coming forward and preaching about and raising money to cure AIDS or whatever the cause d’ jour is. How about they step up to help treat those who shoot, beat, abuse and otherwise harm the innocent in far greater numbers?