To be safe, society must be armed
As a licensed professional counselor, I agree there are no "instant" answers to hard questions, and legislation that would "out" anyone in counseling would be harmful to society, as it could discourage seeking help.
We already have reporting laws. We can't always spot potentially violent behavior because: Not all potentially violent people are in treatment due to a lack of confidence, energy or funds. Or, they prefer the media coverage of a violent act as a route to self esteem instead of the slower process of counseling.
Some violent people in treatment know what symptoms mandate reporting and what to conceal. The policeman who invented serial profiling stated that prison psychiatrists can work with an offender for months and give him a pass. He returns from it glowing about how law abiding he was, with a fresh body in his car trunk.
Lawbreakers will always get guns. I've often heard patients exchange information on dangerous subjects.
The solution is not to change laws, but to arm licensed, responsible citizens. The NIU gunman stopped medication due to side effects. A change in dosage or type might have helped. However, there will always be patients who don't discuss their plans to decrease meds.
There are two requirements for change -- a disincentive to stay stuck, and belief in one's ability. With the disturbed, my field can hardly compete with the media, which provides notoriety, an incentive to stay stuck, because counseling clients have to provide their own incentive to change.
Ccw or Tasers may be a disincentive to stay stuck, as a gunman may get shot in the leg and live, or get badly shocked. Murderers are extreme bullies.
Only two things work with bullies -- abandonment or responding with force. They both come from outside of the bully.
It's painful to acknowledge that we need guns to have a safer society, so we don't. We instead try to solve gun problems with blaming reporting, ease of obtaining guns, and other forms of scratching far from the itch.
Diana L. Carter
Elgin