There is a particular aspect of these school and public shootings that is gnawing at me. Everyone talks about keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. But, what about the disturbed, lonely, marginalized, bullied, isolated, maybe abused, people who are not mentally ill but are willing to give up their lives to be seen, heard and talked about, to finally be part of a group and to finally matter? How about the people who are full of hatred and desensitized to killing, social outcasts with bigotry their loudest voice? These people are not walking down the street mumbling to themselves. They are not easily identified as a potential threat. They might not be mentally ill, but they are extremely disturbed. How do we identify them?
What if our social scientists got together and made up a questionnaire that every college freshman had to fill out about their social experience, beliefs and attitudes? Maybe these potentially threatening people could be identified by computer and be targeted to receive help. I can hear the arguments already…it is too expensive and labor intensive, might invade privacy, how do we force them to accept help? And, of course, not every perpetrator is attending the school. But, since there doesn’t seem to be an answer that includes every scenario, let’s at least do something to be proactive rather than allow ourselves to be victimized time and time again without a clue how to prevent it from happening again. It’s just too terrible, too disturbing, too horrific. Your thoughts?
