More Stories About Guns, Violence and Mental Illness

There is a growing chorus of voices from across the political spectrum to create a data base of the mentally ill in society and flag those who are the most dangerous. This data will be stored in a giant computer which can spit out the names of the dangerously disordered if they try and buy a gun. Under this plan the mental health industry, led by psychiatrists and psychologists, will be our protectors in reducing the self inflicted carnage now terrorizing society. We will discuss the futility of this desperate plan and its dangers to our fragile democracy. In the course of our examination of our story to save ourselves from ourselves we will examine the bible of psychiatry, the DSM, and how relying on this list of bad behaviors can only make things worse. We will examine simpler ways to deal with the problem.