Mr. Obama, Focus on Violence and Mental Illness | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: We are please to add the words of North Carolina Senator Thom Goolsby to our stable of right-thinking and most capable writers here at BCN. In this timely past post, not yet published on BCN, we are exposed to the NC Senator's take on voter fraud, which is very real in North Carolina.

    Mr. Obama, Focus on Violence and Mental Illness

    Many constitutionalists, libertarians and conservatives are justifiably angry with President Obama due to his recent executive decrees regarding firearms. Pro-Second Amendment Americans are rightfully concerned about proposed infringements on their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

    However, the hoopla over the President's recent actions should not obscure several measures put forward by the Administration. Two very important areas that I addressed in my last gun column are brought into sharp focus in the President's proposals: violence in modern day society and mental illness.

    One of the President's immediate action items is to direct the Centers for Disease Control and other research agencies to conduct studies into "the relationship between video games, media images and violence." It is past time for the Hollywood Left, Madison Avenue, game makers and all the other purveyors of violent images as "cool, hip and fun" to be held accountable for the way Americans, and particularly our youth, have been desensitized to cruel and inhumane acts. Hopefully, the President is serious about this measure and it is not simply an effort to use government researchers to focus on guns, instead of the causes of increased violence in society.

    The President also directed his administration to clarify to healthcare providers that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence from patients. Reminding doctors that they should report dangerous individuals is all well and good. However, the President stopped far short of what he could have done: demand that healthcare providers be held responsible when they do not protect the public and allow dangerous individuals to roam free.

    The President wisely called for "mental health first aid" training to be provided to teachers and staff in order to recognize the signs of mental illness in young people and refer them for treatment. Further, he promised increased access to mental health services for the 6 to 10 million Americans suffering from mental illness. Sadly, his promise rings hollow when we learn that ObamaCare is supposed to provide the needed health care services for the mentally impaired.

    In another shortcoming, the President failed to call for an investigation into the epidemic of increasing mental illness in our society. He also did not address the role of psychotropic medications and their link to an increased risk for violence, even homicidal behavior. Somehow, mass shooters and spree killers on cocktails of psychotropic medications do not warrant investigations into the interactions of all these drugs on the human brains of sick individuals.

    The President said nothing about stopping potential killers from roaming free. Anyone who works in the criminal justice or mental health systems knows that it is almost impossible to commit an individual for any length of time in this day and age. Bureaucratic red tape, reduced funding to mental hospitals and legal constraints have made it extremely difficult to involuntarily commit anyone - no matter how dangerous they are.

    It was the President who said, "If even one child's life can be saved, then we need to act. Now is the time to do the right thing for our children, our communities, and the country we love." Mr. Obama is correct. We deserve a real effort to target violence and mental illness - the true causes of the murder and mayhem we see being played out all across our land. His call to action regrettably falls far short of what is needed, unless you think guns are the real problem.

    Thom Goolsby is a state senator, practicing attorney and law professor. He is a chairman of the Senate Judiciary 1 and Justice and Public Safety Committees.