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I just read your article about Nina in the Jeff Review, and sympathize with the problem that is giving all of us worry.

I would like to add another note to the problem.  Most of the kids who have been shooting in schools have been very disturbed.  The shooter at Virginia. Tech had been known to have mental illness.  It seems to me that this is even a more basic problem than the question of carrying guns.  There needs to be a way of keeping mentally ill people either treated or kept out of the public arena. 

This may sound restrictive to the civil liberties people, but this comes from our own experience having a mentally ill daughter.  Luckily, our daughter is not dangerous, and would not know anything about guns.  But she is dangerous to herself and a problem for others when she is not taking her medication.  So we have to force her to take her shot to keep her from going off the beam.  We do this by bribing her with money if she takes the shot.  It has been the only way it works for us in order to let her be out in the world. 

If the VT shooter had been forced to take medication or else be locked in a safe place, he would not have been free to do the deed.  In the past, people like him would have been in a state hospital, where he would have been cared for.  Now the world does not want to support this kind of care, and prefers to give out a bottle of pills and expect people to take the pills.  It doesn't work. 

Recently in the paper it was announced that Seven Counties is being forced to close its office in the Buechel area of Louisville because of lack of funding.  This is an outpatient facility that was set up to help people with mental illness.  There are more people who need help now than ever.  More disturbed people are going to be intruding into the general scene, and we will all be dealing with it.  As long as the people and politicians refuse to acknowledge that funding is needed desperately, we will be faced with crazy people wielding weapons. 

Anonymous reader

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