Posted on 11/08/2018 2:28:26 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
A mental health crisis team chose not to involuntarily commit Thousand Oaks gunman Ian David Long for mental health evaluation and treatment in April of this year. CBS News reports the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office had numerous encounters with former Marine Ian David Long before he opened fire inside the Borderline Bar & Grill Wednesday night. Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said they went to Long’s residence in April in response to a disturbance call. The Los Angeles Times reports that who went to Long’s house in April noted he was “irate and acting irrationally.”
A “mental health crisis team was called at that time and concluded that Long did not need to be taken into custody.” The mental health team had the option to issue an order to have Long “held for up to 72 hours” if they recognized him as a threat to himself or others.
Breitbart News reported that Long killed 12 innocents Wednesday night, including Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus. He used a legally owned .45 caliber Glock handgun to carry out his attack.
California has Gun Violence Restraining Orders, which are court orders that empower law enforcement to confiscate firearms from persons deemed a threat to themselves or others. The orders are issued after a family member or co-worker testifies to the danger they believe a person poses to himself or others.
Such orders were passed by California the legislature in 2014 and in early 2015 UCLA law professor Adam Winkler warned his fellow gun controllers not to get their hopes up, regarding the law’s effectiveness. Winkler told the National Journal that family members do not often recognize, much less report, a family member’s violent tendencies. Therefore, a Gun Violence Restraining Order is rarely triggered.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Perhaps California should outlaw murder
I believe there is a pattern here.
Namely, mass murderers who were not locked up for violent behavior and statements.
Meanwhile, how many of the Mental Health Experts are gun control advocates?
Are the Mental Health Experts intentionally releasing these dangerous people in hopes they commit a violent crime?
I think the idea for many years has been to keep people as free as they can be. The ever present threat of lawsuit keeps everyone, government and non government alike from making the tough decisions.
I think also, even if they had been taken for evaluation for the 72 hours and were settled down by then, they would be turned right back out.
It isn’t the tools used in murders that are the problem, it is the society that has become debased enough to create murderous people. I would be far less concerned hanging out with a thousand Amish that were carrying AR-15s than I would be buying beer at Altged Garden Liquor on the south side of Chiraq (Chicago).
"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody."
― Thomas Paine
I laugh at people who think you can have someone “committed” on a whim. Having gone through this process, it takes a significant combined effort of legal and medical people to make it happen.
And if no one utters the phrase, “I want to kill myself, or you” it’s not going to happen in ten minutes.
I wish people would take just a few minutes to learn about what they are voicing an opinion on.
There wasn’t a 2nd image. I think I left a wrong character in the html.
Wrong. A lot of people (such as you) have no conception of what’s involved in “commitment” and how long it may last, what the aftermath will be, etc. Just bc someone might be committed for an initial period (such as 72 hrs) in many states does not even begin to control what they may do months or years later. Yes, it is worth asking what opportunities may have been missed in this case, but psychiatric commitment is far from being any panacea for such cases.
He might have been committed, evaluated, and released.... or he might have spent some extended time in-patient undergoing some amount of treatment but he still would eventually be released (unless you advocate “committing” everyone for life).
Commitment does not come close to solving all of these issues in all cases, though it might have given us a “chance” so to speak. A big part of the problem is that psychiatry is far from being able to assess much less effectively treat all potentially violent offenders.
I still haven’t heard anything about his political leanings (although his being dressed in black does sound familiar and would explain why he attacked a country music bar).
According to who? Such medical records and reports are protected under HIPPA............
Family members could have gone for a conservatorship.
Or, if the guy was nuts, maybe the family didn’t even want to deal with him at all.
Or, if the guy was nuts, maybe the family didn’t even want to deal with him at all.
Unfair to use logic ‘n stuff when freepers are on a roll.
He wasn’t threatening anyone last April so it wasn’t like a 72 hr hold would have been granted. He was punching holes in the walls of his mom’s house where he lived. Irrational, a Marine with PTSD, but not making threats.
this is what we are hearing on LA radio-
He was a Marine who had done a tour in Afghanistan as a machine gunner. Saw combat. A loner, considered sad and odd since childhood. Seemed to have become more of a loner after a motorcycle wreck that left him injured and taking pain pills. Was briefly married, divorced, went back to living at his mother’s house. Neighbors think he was suffering from PTSD.
Whew … thank goodness they can't come and take your guns because a neighbor 'thinks' he had PTSD. I'm sure their psychiatric diagnosis would trigger red flag laws. The mental health team that actually interviewed him was the front line to stop him back then. He was either a good faker or the team was unable to determine mental problems high enough to warrant intervention. Tough call, but I sure don't want my neighbor red flag swatting me because they know im a vet and they 'think' I have PTSD.
You’ve sure built a big story about his neighbors. I haven’t heard that any neighbor ever reported him for anything. His mother did, because he was angry and irrational and punching holes in the wall of her house.
The neighbors are simply answering reporters’ questions about their impression of Ian Long. Some think he had PTSD.
My PTSD excerpt was from your posts not from me, thus the italics. I was commenting on it on a message board of comments as to absurdity of neighborhood mental health experts if they told reporters of their diagnosis of the Vet neighbor. The scenario I wrote was just that, a ‘possible’ scenario, not fact, or a ‘big story’.
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