Psychosis Control

It will be some time before it can be determined what lessons (if any) are to be learned from the V-Tech shootings. We remain in that period when the shouting of professional exploiters (politicians, the media, Dr. Phil) drowns out most sober reflection, as each of them insists that this tragedy should at last bring home to all Americans that the shouter's particular issue must be resolved as the screamer has always insisted.

But (as usual) Charles Krauthammer's views may be profitably considered:

If we are going to look for a political issue here, the more relevant is not gun control but psychosis control. We decided a half a century ago that our more eccentric and, indeed, crazy fellow citizens would not be easily locked in asylums. It was a humane decision, but with the inevitable consequence that some who really need quarantine are allowed to roam the streets.

[snip]

In a previous age, such a troubled soul might have found himself at the state mental hospital rather than a state university. But in a trade-off that a decent and tolerant society makes with open eyes, we allow freedom from straitjackets to those on the psychic edge, knowing that such tolerance runs a very rare but very terrible risk.