If Congress can't agree on gun control, it needs to go big on behavioral health with serious investment in recruiting, training and properly paying behavioral health workers
Gary, thanks for this in-depth look into what it will take to "soften" schools and build a robust behavioral health system beyond classrooms. However, it's not one or the other, nor all or nothing of either. Your analysis suggest softening schools will be a major undertaking, but I wonder what the best next steps are to implement shorter-term solutions. As with many things, there is a time value to interventions, so there's a benefit to start sooner even if that means starting small. Ditto for other (gun control), which can be incremental and immediately effective, e.g. by raising the age for the purchase of weapons to 21, expanding background and limiting high-capacity assault weapons. I'd like to see a side-by-side list of "best next" timely steps in both categories -- which could for the basis of a compromise package that gives credence to both kinds of solutions and focuses on the results that we all want to see.
I absolutely agree, Tim, that gun controls are needed. Personally, I don't see why rifles designed to kill as many people as possible should be condoned in our communities. But there are political roadblocks to considering even the most basic controls. I wish there was a quick fix, but there isn't one. Until we are prepared as a nation to reduce the number of powerful guns used to kill, the best option is to invest in best practices to reduce violence by addressing their source, especially in young males.
Gary, some fixes are far quicker than others, and none is sufficient. Yes, we need both common sense gun controls and innovative behavioral health programs in our schools. The Salem-Keizer schools district offers a good example of the latter, but it took years to develop. Meanwhile, we have a shortage of counselors and therapists but no shortage of guns. The public supports both approaches, so why turn our backs and give up on the interventions that will have the most immediate effects?
I passed by a group of students who had marched to city hall in Independence yesterday. I read their signs. They were asking for more control over guns, they weren't asking for more counselors.
I favor gun control legislation. But it isn't a quick fix, either. How many years has it been since Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland? Asking for gun controls isn't the same as enacting them. So, we agree on pursuing all avenues to cure this national misery,
If a ban on purchases of guns by persons under the age of 21 had been in effect in Texas, where the Uvalde shooter purchased the guns he used on his 18th birthday, that would have prevented the massacre that followed. That's about as quick a fix as I can imagine for any public policy.
Gary, thanks for this in-depth look into what it will take to "soften" schools and build a robust behavioral health system beyond classrooms. However, it's not one or the other, nor all or nothing of either. Your analysis suggest softening schools will be a major undertaking, but I wonder what the best next steps are to implement shorter-term solutions. As with many things, there is a time value to interventions, so there's a benefit to start sooner even if that means starting small. Ditto for other (gun control), which can be incremental and immediately effective, e.g. by raising the age for the purchase of weapons to 21, expanding background and limiting high-capacity assault weapons. I'd like to see a side-by-side list of "best next" timely steps in both categories -- which could for the basis of a compromise package that gives credence to both kinds of solutions and focuses on the results that we all want to see.
I absolutely agree, Tim, that gun controls are needed. Personally, I don't see why rifles designed to kill as many people as possible should be condoned in our communities. But there are political roadblocks to considering even the most basic controls. I wish there was a quick fix, but there isn't one. Until we are prepared as a nation to reduce the number of powerful guns used to kill, the best option is to invest in best practices to reduce violence by addressing their source, especially in young males.
Gary, some fixes are far quicker than others, and none is sufficient. Yes, we need both common sense gun controls and innovative behavioral health programs in our schools. The Salem-Keizer schools district offers a good example of the latter, but it took years to develop. Meanwhile, we have a shortage of counselors and therapists but no shortage of guns. The public supports both approaches, so why turn our backs and give up on the interventions that will have the most immediate effects?
I passed by a group of students who had marched to city hall in Independence yesterday. I read their signs. They were asking for more control over guns, they weren't asking for more counselors.
I favor gun control legislation. But it isn't a quick fix, either. How many years has it been since Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland? Asking for gun controls isn't the same as enacting them. So, we agree on pursuing all avenues to cure this national misery,
If a ban on purchases of guns by persons under the age of 21 had been in effect in Texas, where the Uvalde shooter purchased the guns he used on his 18th birthday, that would have prevented the massacre that followed. That's about as quick a fix as I can imagine for any public policy.
"If"...