Shootings may be linked to closing of facilities

Am I the only one to connect Ronald Reagan’s attitude toward spending money on mental health along with warnings about future problems if he closed mental health facilities and the recent incidents involving shooters with mental health issues? Reagan closed the facilities despite the warnings. The problems did not occur immediately but more than 20 years later, as there have been several shootings, seemingly, by people with mental illnesses.

The Newtown grammar school, the Wisconsin temple, the Colorado theater and the congresswoman from Arizona who was shot along with several people who were killed in the same attack come to mind immediately.

Would the perpetrators of those or other attacks have been identified as having problems and been helped had those facilities remained open? Unfortunately, we’ll never know, but if even one had been identified and helped there would be several more people alive today.

The TV brought us news recently of a seemingly disturbed individual who stabbed and cut many students in Texas. It seems that reopening those shuttered facilities would solve many of our mass murders and attacks.

David Lackowski

Wheeling