They will say: If only there were some way he could have gotten help

The events in Newton Connecticut are of course only the latest in a series of insane attacks by an unbalanced men with guns.  When someone speaks of gun control we are told not to politicize this tragedy, as though a preemptive attack on ways to minimize future mass murders was not politicizing it already.

And you hear another refrain, this one coming from both the left and the right.  If only he could have gotten treatment, if he could have been helped, perhaps it would never have come to this.  It is especially hypocritical when it comes from the right wing.

Because if there was a program, say, mental health screening as routinely as children are vaccinated, and treatment for those that needed it.  If we had all that in place. the right wing would be anxiously dismantling it as quickly as they could.

Mental health screening?  Social engineering they would call it.  A treatment program?  Well that would be an entitlement that needs to be done away with.  Why do I think that?  Because we used to have a lot of that in this country.

California had a state hospital system.  Schools had psychologists.  But in the right wing point of view, all that stuff is unnecessary coddling.

Of course they will have excuses, we can't afford it, it is not the job of the government, but of course it is exactly why we have a government.  Because collectively we can do things that we cannot do individually.

So, to the Karl Roves of the world, you own this one.  This is what you get when you combine unregulated gun access with no real mental health policy.  Not that he cares, but you should.

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