Discussion for article #230467
his semi-automatic pistol
Insane, God given or drug induced, and packing…
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Extreme paranoia, likely psychotic, and he had a gun. That’s America for you.
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I live in Las Cruces. As a nurse and a past mental health professional, and I feel terrible that this young man was not properly treated here, which would have prevented his death and the injury to others. Like many other places in this country, we are in a very serious crisis in our community and in our state when it comes to being able to provide decent, consistent treatment for mental illness. Our only local hospital that did accept the mentally ill has decided it’s not a profitable venture and has de facto closed the only secured hospital-based behavioral health unit in the community.
Even though he stayed at our only remaining local “mental hospital”, as a profit making hospital it does not have to accept or keep any patient it chooses not to. Lately, because the of the closing of the other hospitals unit, they are getting slammed with every single psychiatric emergency and request for involuntary hold in town. It it appears they were so overburdened that they failed to fully assess the deep level of disturbance he was experiencing, not necessarily because they don’t care but because of the limitations of their resources and the nature of his illness.
Oftentimes, in paranoid schizophrenia (which his reported symptoms point to as a likely diagnosis), sufferers are some of the most high functioning patients seen. They are the ones who can attain college degrees, hold jobs, function relatively well until that final moment in which their illness balloons into full-fledged hallucinations and delusions. They can fake that they’re doing far, far better than they truly are, and in an overwhelmed mental health system, they’re the first to be “let go” on their own recognizance.
While I know this could have happened in any place in America, I am particularly saddened that it started here, in my community. I hope our leaders recognize this and start to implement a better response to our mentally ill as soon as possible.
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Keep a close eye on Sharyl Attkisson.
This sounds a lot like my brother. He was afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia. He went from being an A and B student in college to all Ds and Fs from one semester to the next. The only drug he took was caffeine pills so he could study into the night, probably a big mistake. He heard voices and thought he was being persecuted by nearly everyone he encountered, especially our father. He thought he needed a gun to protect himself. The gun shop was happy to sell it to him even though he had deep scars from cutting the jugular vein. He probably would have died if he had not been in a hospital when he did it. He was obviously mentally ill. At that time, 20 years ago, a background check took 3 days and our father saw the receipt on his dresser while he was waiting for the gun. Dad called the gun shop and explained the situation. They insisted that they would proceed with the sale if he passed the background check. Dad then called the sheriff who was more sympathetic, but he said that because my brother did not have a felony conviction on his record, he could not prevent the sale. Dad finally tore up the receipt, and my brother moved on to other concerns. He spent 18 years in a community care facility before he died. Governor Brandstad has a metal health care initiative in our state. It is advertised as an improvement, but so far the mental health facility my brother lived in has been closed and is scheduled for demolition. Millions are being cut from the state mental health budget. The mentally ill and their families are dealing with a real crisis in this country.
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Berkowitz thought that the neighbor’s dog was talking to him and telling him to kill.
Extreme paranoia, likely psychotic, and the NRA staunchly defends his right to have as many guns as he wants. That’s America for you.
FTFY.
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My grandmother was a paranoid schizophrenic and did an amazing job of faking it when she needed to.
It’s hard for people to understand if they haven’t dealt with mental illness up close.
Complained??
Excuse me?
The Voices are Gift From God. The gun was a gift to America from the NRA.
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You know, more than once now I thought I was being watched by the NSA / FBI / DEA / CIA / NPS / FS / BLM / ICE too. Maybe we are? Nah.
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if he thought the government was spying on him, why attack the university?
Serious question--------
Can deaf people ‘hear’ voices?
“…A man who shot three people at a Florida State University library…”
This is where the NRA’s argument completely breaks down. Homicidal psychotic people have no constitutional right to bear arms.
He thought it was the government? What matters is that a completely psychotic person got a semi-automatic gun and bullets.
If Fox news cared about people one whit, they would spend a month says “guns” as often as they said “ebola” and scaring their viewers sh$tless about being killed by random gun violence, which is far more likely. And then some rational gun law reform might actually become something politicians could stand up for.
And maybe even get reasonable funding for treatment for mental illness. This young man needed far more help than he got and other people paid for the taxpayer’s cheapness with their lives.