I am a LEO and firearms instructor so you can imagine I lean towards not supporting gun control, but I definitely agree there needs to be stricter parameters concerning background checks and ccw licensure.
One of the biggest issues in my opinion is the failure of the mental health system over the recent decades. We have an enormous amount of individuals with mental health issues that are not getting the treatment and help they need. It has devolved into a major "grey" area in the criminal justice system. Just recently, even our local county maintained ambulances are refusing to transport mental health individuals without injuries, even if they are requesting to go to the hospital voluntarily. As usual, it falls back on law enforcement who are not necessarily trained to deal, transport, or treat with mental health issues.
Once we get them to the hospital they are usually "stabilized" and turned back out like an assembly line without addressing the underlying mental diseases for a long term cure/treatment. There are fewer and fewer public and private residential programs that are needed to truly change and treat these individuals. But like so many other "undesirables" in our society, they fall through the cracks and no one want to deal with them or their growing problems.
The vast majority of active shooters have know mental health issues that were not treated or allowed to go without treatment. Even the interviews with people who interacted with the most recent Florida shooter, people over and over said there was something wrong with him, or he had "problem".
We have a much larger people and society problem than we do a gun problems. Just my humble opinion though.
Ha! I knew that you were an instructor like myself! I read one of your posts and I could tell by the way that you "outlined" everything. I swear, reading your post brought back horrible memories for me at the Justice Academy, sorry lol.
I agree with everything you said and can also relate. I'm not sure what state your in, but in North Carolina, we actually had one of our largest mental health facilities to close down several years ago due to funding. In my own area, we had small facilities with under-trained and under-qualified staff working in these places and it was a nightmare. These people were not capable of handling mental health patients. Then all of the sudden they found out about the involuntary commitment process and started abusing the sheriff's office. They would call us all the time and it would drive me insane! At the time I was a patrol sergeant and I got called to the home due to a disturbance call. Once I arrived, the staff member advised me that one of the patients was smoking in his room and wouldn't give up his cigarettes or matches. It took every fiber of being to control myself from saying something inappropriate to this woman so I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and said "What exactly are you expecting me to do about it?". She looked shell shocked and said "I want you to go search his room and find the cigarettes." I shook my head and told her that I was not going to go search his room and that isn't my job. I further told her that the sheriff's office was not here to enforce their rules for them. I explained to her what services my department could provide her if she needed any future assistance and un-assed the area. After that, the calls slowed down but they started claiming that the more troubling patients were a danger to themselves and others and started filing 73 papers. It was basically just a poorly funded, poorly trained home for mentally ill patients. The sad part is that the patients are not getting the appropriate level of care that they need in those types of homes.
Ahh, don't ya just love Fire and EMS lol. I don't know what it is but it seems like wherever you go, there's always some kind of tension between all three departments. I appreciate what each one of them do but they can be a real pain in the ass some times. Just like you mentioned about not transporting voluntary commitments, why does that have to fall back on the law side? I've had people willing to go to the hospital but didn't want to ride in my patrol car for obvious reasons. Grrr, don't get me started on that or we'll be here all day. I've just had too many incidents happen where....well, you know. But anyway...
The famous revolving door I am also familiar with. It's not only for criminals but for mentally ill patients as well. I've seen this scenario multiple times as well. We pick up the patient and take them to the hospital just to bring them right back home a few hours later. Or if they do get sent to a proper mental hospital, they are usually released after the minimum mandatory 3 day hold. I don't mean to sound judgmental and pointing fingers but there is obviously major flaws in our system that needs to be addressed. Great response!