By Janlee Wong, MSW
The recent tragedy in Santa Barbara where a young man with mental health problems used knives, guns and his car to kill six people and injure 13 more begs the question that we have asked too often: What can we, as a society, do to prevent more tragedies like this in the future?
The initial reaction is to focus on strengthening gun control laws, but even the shooting of former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the Sandy Hook school shooting, and the Aurora, Colorado, theatre shooting brought no changes in gun control laws.
Furthermore, several of the shooters had received mental health treatment, but this did not prevent the shootings. The shooter in Santa Barbara even had a visit from the Sheriff’s Department, but he presented as not dangerous and nothing further happened. In these cases and others, there seemed to be a gap in our mental health system for potentially dangerous people. The gap is the ability to get weapons such as guns and the inability to further assess and hold people or limit their possession of guns.
We should begin a serious dialogue about doing something in the cases and challenge the standard response which is there is nothing we could have done to prevent these tragedies.
Mental Health Treatment
Many have felt the need for additional treatment — sometimes involuntary — for those deemed a risk but not fitting the accepted standard of imminent risk. After the murder of Laura Wilcox in 2001, California enacted “Laura’s Law,” which permitted court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment and forced medication for those deemed by the court as having a high risk for violence but below traditional standard. Until recently, only one county implemented the program while the other counties remained on the sidelines citing cost as a major obstacle.
Gun Prohibition and Registration
Federal law has provisions prohibiting people with serious mental illness and a high potential for violence from purchasing guns but most of the mass shooting killers had obtained their guns legally.
Federal law prohibits a national electronic gun registry. California has a gun registry that can be and is used by law enforcement.
Ideas for Improving Public Policy and Preventing Future Tragedies
- Involve a mental health professional when law enforcement is called upon to check on at risk individuals.
- Encourage law enforcement to check gun registries when called to assess individuals for dangerousness.
- Widen the authority of social workers and mental health professionals to take an action that would trigger further evaluation. Possibly during this second evaluation period, gun rights could be temporarily suspended.
- Provide family members and friends with a mental health hotline that could include bringing a restraining order on weapons on individuals family members are concerned about (similar to California Assembly Bill 1014 [Williams, Skinner]). California State Senate President Darrell Steinberg is developing further gun control legislation.
- Individuals voluntarily submit to further evaluation and suspension of gun rights or law enforcement/mental health professionals would go to court to obtain this
- Widen the definition of potential dangerousness and more training for the courts and law enforcement as well as mental health professionals.
- Encourage therapists to check clients’ social media for danger signs.
Action Needed Now
As with many tragedies like this, the call for action is highest right after the incident. Unfortunately completing the action is a slow and laborious process especially involving gun rights and civil rights. We must put forth the proposals and stay with the process if we are to get anything done.
