While the article raises important questions about the limits of relying on the mental health system to prevent violent acts, I believe the deeper issue lies elsewhere. The real problem is that gun-free zones and restrictive gun control laws leave ordinary people unable to defend themselves when violence erupts, while our justice system often releases repeat offenders through policies like cashless bail. Mental health interventions have their place, but they cannot substitute for ensuring that citizens have both the means and the legal protections to safeguard themselves, and that dangerous criminals are kept off the streets.
A profound mental health crisis lies at the heart of violence in America. Decarlos Brown Jr., the man who brutally stabbed to death the Ukrainian woman in Charlotte, North Carolina, was in a mental hospital earlier this year, and diagnosed with schizophrenia. But doctors wouldn’t have released him if they had viewed him as a danger to himself or others.
Similarly, the killers at Minneapolis’ Annunciation Catholic School and Nashville’s Covenant School both struggled with mental illness. Nearly all mass shooters also battled suicidal thoughts.
“We will never arrest our way out of issues such as homelessness and mental health,” Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles warned after the stabbing death. “Mental health disease is just that – a disease. It needs to be treated with the same compassion.” After the Minneapolis attack, House Speaker Mike Johnson underscored the issue: “The problem is the human heart. It’s mental health. There are things that we can do.”
By John R. Lott Jr. , Thomas Massie
