Newtown Massacre a Mental Health Issue - NOT a Gun Issue

What kind of parent buys guns for a son with issues like his?

That Adam Lanza suffered from a variety of mental disorders was well-known, both to the Newtown High School psychologist and to his parents. In fact, his father agreed to pay his ex-wife $250,000/year support payments, more than was recommended by the courts, in exchange for joint legal custody and liberal visitation privileges, precisely because he was worried about his son.

Therefore it defies all reason as to how, under these circumstances, his school-teacher mother would have purchased firearms and trained her mentally ill son how to use them, and why his father never intervened.

The lesson to be learned from this absolutely horrific and incomprehensible tragedy is that we, as a nation, need to get serious about mental health treatment. We not only need to identify those in need of life-long mental health care from an early age, we need to involve and train parents on what to do and what not to do. Did the Newtown High School psychologist who recommended Adam Lanza for counseling ever speak to his parents about weapons at home and the risk of someone with his profile? Did his father ever talk to his ex-wife about the guns she bought shortly after they divorced, or of the trips she took for target practice with their son?

Mental health problems are serious health problems, perhaps the most serious problems we as a society face. Currently, our response in cases like these is wholly inadequate, and the Newtown shooting is one result.

It is my hope that we can use this horribly sad event to catalyze the discussion on how we identify and treat those among us who are, quite literally, ticking time bombs.