Now we're getting claims that gun violence could be fixed if police could involuntarily commit any person who's at all troubled. Such prescriptions fall apart on even the slightest review and aren't nearly as effective as making certain types of guns/ammo exceedingly hard to get.
2/ Police aren't trained to be mental health professionals. Our mental health facilities don't have room to admit every person police feel like locking up in a hospital. Police trips to chat with someone only rarely lead to discovery of anyone's secret nefarious criminal intent.
3/ Of *course* people should contact law enforcement when there's a specific, articulable suspicion someone's planning a crime. But police officers implying everyone should call in 100 tips a year are being dishonest about how many tips police can handle and how useful they are.
4/ Just so, cable hosts implying that people in a community seeing warning signs in an individual can immediately lead to effective intervention and prevention of any future criminal activity is just a fantasy of how our legal system works and how people operate. It's false hope.
5/ Yes, interventions should be sought when warning signs are detected. But to say it's the failure to do this that is causing gun violence is neither accurate nor an effective prescription for solving a widespread problem long-term. It's wishful thinking, and not helpful at all.
6/ An engaged, tip-sending populace, and aggressive interventions at the first warning signs of a troubled and dangerous young person are just two parts of what needs to be a comprehensive strategy to combat gun violence. Neither of these, alone or taken together, are a panacea.
7/ I think serious warning signs are (generally) regularly picked up by community members and school officials. I think *ambiguous* warning signs will always be difficult to pick up or to translate into action for non-professionals in a community-at-large or a school community.
8/ In a nation where guns are legal, I think it's ridiculous for a Florida sheriff to say that if a neighbor usually buys milk and eggs on Friday and then one day buys ammunition, you should call the cops. What the hell type of advice is that? What fantasy world is he living in?
9/ A clear majority of Americans agree that certain types of guns and certain types of ammo that aren't commonly used in hunting or useful for hunters can't be made safe when/as readily available to the general population. If that's not in the equation, we're kidding ourselves.
10/ Complex problems demand comprehensive solutions. Anyone who offers a strategy for combating gun violence that doesn't have like *50 different elements* operating *all at once* across *different spheres* is a politician lying to us about what works and what is necessary. {end}
