What Tucson Doesn't Mean | National Catholic Reporter

What Tucson Doesn't Mean National Catholic Reporter by Michael Sean Winters.

There is definitely reason to politicize this tragedy, but not regarding the political discourse. Instead, this should open the conversation about how poorly we fund services to the mentally ill (giving them Medicaid does not help if doctors won't take it) and how hard it is to confine them when they refuse treatment or relapse within it.

This guy should not only not have had a gun, he should not have been walking around at-large. His college should have not only been able to insist he go, but alert the authorities so that he was both evaluated and treated.

How the mentally ill are treated in the criminal justice system should be changed. Obviously deranged killers (through either addiction, alcoholism or mental illness) should be able to plead Guilty By Reason of Insanity and be confined to at least the minimum treatment for the crime committed or until safe, whichever comes last. In the present example, the period would be for six counts of voluntary manslaughter with some leeway as to whether they should be consecutive or concurrent.