Letting Crazies Loose

Mental Illness and Mass Murder How many more tragedies like the Tucson shootings will we have to watch before we start facing the harsh truth? Personally, I consider it a kindness to institutionalize those who are mentally incapable as it provides them with needed care and protects innocents (like 9 year old girls) from being brutally murdered. Just sayin'. AND "If you see it on the news one night, know that I got out fast..." AND this from Jerry Pournelle

Back in 1971 when I started the shooter would have been put in a mental health institute unless he could be medicated to safely be out under someone's watchful eye. They changed the laws in the later 70s and 80s to make sure folks like this were not institutionalized. They were more and more let 'on the street' in what Daniel Patrick Moynahan called the "dumbing down of America". The current standard is that they cannot be institutionalized and have their freedom restricted anymore unless the local prosecutor can prove that "they pose a threat to themselves or others who cannot avoid them". So they are let go to run free or let out with medication that they often stop taking, causing them to revert back to looney.