Forget gun control...those kids who shoot up schools are all NUTS and should have been institutionalized even before they managed to reach their teens.
How much do you want to be taxed to build and staff the vast infrastructure to institutionalize millions of people? Who will determine who gets locked up and who doesn't? What kind of safeguards and appeal processes would there be? How many courts and judges would it require to hear those cases? Who is going to guard those places? Will there be treatment? What about medication? What rates will be paid for the medications? What certifications would be required to dispense the medications? What government department is going to be responsible? HHS? Justice?
We have a judicial system. We hardly need to reinvent or recreate the wheel.
Many insane asylum facilities are still there, but lying fallow. It might not cost all THAT much to rehab them and Bellevue Hospital, in NYC, is still up and running; it's just not used for an insane asylum anymore, though they DO still have one psychiatric ward.
Besides which, this solution would NOT be a Fed Gov thing, but rather a states' perview.
So what you’re saying we do nothing?
We’re already taxed for that stuff, it’s a matter of priorities. Most county seats, at the time the land was platted, set aside land specifically for county shelters or mental health facilities. Nut cases are nothing new, it’s only relatively recently that anyone thought it was a good idea to turn them loose in the streets or mainstream them in the schools or let them hold public office.