When the state’s attorney for Danbury released the evidence file on the Newtown elementary school massacre, the catalog of destruction included weaponry, rigorous “game” practice, pre-planning and methods which lay bare the tools and madness of the perpetrator.
It is easy to dismiss the cache of weapons and detailed plans as the work of an outlier. Ghoulishly, it may provide fuel for those who argue that better laws cannot stop a madman’s intent.
But the report from Newtown not only indicts our reluctance to recognize how we functionally enable mass violence via lax gun controls but also to how we emotionally enable violence due to barely there mental health services and intervention.
Common sense and patriotic devotion to the common good requires regulating the lawful sale and use of guns. President Obama urged Congress to pass legislation requiring universal background checks on firearms purchases, banning the sale of assault weapons and limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. But the National Rifle Association and its allies in Congress mounted a campaign against any new gun-control legislation, and a bill that would have expanded background checks was defeated in the Senate. On the heels of the attack on state Sen. Creigh Deeds in Virginia by his troubled son and the release of the Newtown report, a clear-eyed Congress should take up this issue and pass a bill because it is the right thing to do. Cynically, Congress can claim that passing such a bill demonstrates bipartisan commitment to “making Washington work again.”
Just as pressing, it is time to open the eyes of legislators and others to the urgency of mandating full mental health coverage in private and public plans (ACA requires some level of coverage; Medicaid is not required to provide for adults, CHIPs are limited, plans with under 50 employees limited, etc.) as well as to consider enacting the equivalent of “mandatory reporting” requirements when a child or adolescent exhibits the kind of emotional and social behavior which leads to sociopathic destruction of self or others. The report said that at least a decade earlier, while in elementary school and throughout his adolescence, Lanza was found to have “significant social impairments and extreme anxiety,” as well as a “lack of empathy” (a mark of a sociopath) and “very rigid thought processes.” It mentioned that he had obsessive-compulsive disorder, “couldn’t stand to be touched,” and “communicated with his mother only via email” (living under the same roof). Much was made of his refusal to take medication or undergo behavioral therapy, which applies to an adult (i.e., older than 18 years old), not to a child or adolescent who falls under the protection, care and duty of parents, and other caregivers.
How much longer can we fail to intervene in circumstances where (just like child abuse) disorders can have devastating lifelong effects on the individual and others? It is time to open our eyes and take action, on the functional and emotional contributors to gun violence.
The writer is chair of the Democratic Town Committee, which provides this column.