Mental Health Care and Violence

The tragic events of Aug. 10 at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills alert us again to the interplay between the absence of appropriate mental health care and violent behavior.

Over and over we have witnessed violence in our communities and seem to pay little attention to the fact that most of these violent individuals had not been able to obtain the necessary psychiatric treatment and medications to control their behavior.

There has been a lack of parity in psychiatric insurance for individuals in the United States and there has been a continuing decrease in any and all mental health services available at a city, state, county and federal level.

Until these issues are addressed by the appropriate governmental agencies, we will all contribute to the violent behavior that plagues us at this time.

ARNOLD L. GILBERG MD

Past President

So. Cal. Psychoanalytic Institute

Beverly Hills

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Why is there nothing said about why these “crazies” are running around loose? The parents and acquaintances must have known the man who shot the children should have been in a mental institution long ago. Lock them up and quit blaming everything on guns.

RUTH MATTHES

Los Angeles

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The Jewish Community Center shootings and the shooting of postman Joseph Ileto in Granada Hills are a wake-up call for America. There are too many lunatics using superior-race mentality syndrome as a cover-up for their shortcomings and hidden inferiority complexes.

Let’s help them early to understand the beauty of the human race.

LINO PARAS

Duarte

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Tragic though the Granada Hills shootings were, the response was in itself a hate crime. Every week, black and Hispanic children are shot dead in L.A. (not just wounded), yet where are the 250 LAPD officers, the 40 FBI and ATF agents, the messages from the U.S. president and California governor and prime ministers of foreign countries and the suspension of all television and cable news programming for wall-to-wall coverage for them?

TIM BRADLEY

Altadena

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It is precisely because of nuts such as Buford Furrow that I would not want to disarm the populace. If we outlawed all guns tomorrow, the vast majority of law-abiding gun owners would probably turn in their guns, leaving only the police, criminals and various hatemongers with guns.

The anti-gun zealots ought to be careful of what they wish for. During the height of the riots in 1992, when it was obvious that the police were clearly outmanned, you saw criminals breaking into only those businesses that were not protected by armed owners. Criminals tend to be rational about one thing--they will choose the victim less likely to be armed.

LARRY GLENN

Glendale

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What is it going to take to make our neighborhoods safe for innocent children? Thousands of our youths are victims of gun violence in this country each year--from accidents as a result of unsafe storage of handguns in the home or purposeful actions, like the senseless act in Granada Hills. We are a society laden with violent messages every second of every day.

Let your representatives know that you will not tolerate them continuing to be the dupes of the gun lobby or ignoring the desensitization toward violence that pervades our nation. Simply put, “It’s the guns, STUPID!” (and TV and the movies).

ARTHUR STRAUSS MD

Irvine

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If guns were illegal, Furrow would still have been able to acquire an arsenal. He would have acquired this arsenal from a newly rich gangster living in fat city off the proceeds of an illicit economy created by our outrage, paranoia and naivete. Instead of asking, “Why do guns exist?” we should be asking, “Why do Buford Furrows exist?”

Face the facts and deal with reality; if guns were illegal everybody who wanted one would have one.

DAN JENSEN

San Clemente

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This is not the Land of the Free. This is the Land of the Gun. We are not free if we’re shot and killed going to the corner market, going to school, walking the dog, driving the car, sitting on the front porch.

I’ve had enough of the “Our thoughts go out to the victims and their families” speeches. President Clinton, pick up that pen and sign the executive order and let’s get rid of the No. 1 menace to society once and for all. Sometimes the only way is to throw ‘em all out and just start over, because obviously the road we’re on is nothing but a dead end.

LINDA JORDAN

North Hollywood

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May I suggest that the National Rifle Assn. supply a dues-paying member, armed with an assault rifle, to stand guard outside every church, school and brokerage in America.

JACK MERRITT

Claremont