

How Big Data Can Solve America's Gun Problem - sk2code
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/how-big-data-can-solve-americas-gun-problem/266633/#

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maxharris
America doesn't have a gun problem: it has a mental health problem, caused by
the anti-psychiatry movement that started in the 1960s. Each of the recent
high-profile active shooters could have been stopped were it not for legal
strictures that have virtually eliminated involuntary commitment in the United
States.

The anti-psychiatry movement has been so pervasive and effective that
psychiatrists are effectively banned from speaking about these cases publicly.
See this recent editorial by Dr. Paul Steinberg, published two days ago in the
New York Times:

"I write this despite the so-called Goldwater Rule, an ethical standard the
American Psychiatric Association adopted in the 1970s that directs
psychiatrists not to comment on someone’s mental state if they have not
examined him and gotten permission to discuss his case. It has had a chilling
effect. After mass murders, our airwaves are filled with unfounded
speculations about video games, our culture of hedonism and our loss of
religious faith, while psychiatrists, the ones who know the most about severe
mental illness, are largely marginalized."

[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/opinion/our-failed-
approac...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/opinion/our-failed-approach-to-
schizophrenia.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0)

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bifrost
They missed the fact that the ATF requires reporting of rapid/multiple gun
purchases. Regardless, this is a huge invasion of privacy, akin to reporting
of library book checkouts or anything medical related.

Bad idea.

