How to Really Stop Mass Shootings

All right, banning more guns is going to do nothing to prevent incidents like the recent Connecticut shooting. What will?

One idea is to lock up anyone who is mentally ill and shows violent tendencies. The problem with this is that professional psychiatrists and psychologists have demonstrated no ability whatsoever to identify who is and who is not a threat of violence. In fact, studies suggest they are worse at this than the general population.

But this may not be a problem. Most of the mentally ill, let alone the violently mentally ill, do not want to live in society. Living in the community is the last thing they want to do. The community has driven them crazy. I bet they would voluntarily remove themselves from the community, given half a chance.

They don’t so it now, firstly, because they are not allowed to, and second, because the asylums have for some mad reason generally been designed to be like prisons. Instead, a lot of them die on the street.

Portrait of an Insane Woman, 1854

The trick is to design an asylum that is not too attractive to an ordinary, simply lazy person, gives the (perhaps violently) insane what they want, and separates them from the rest of society.

In a country like the US or Canada, with lots of land, there does seem to be a simple solution: offer the self-selected “mentally ill” free accommodation in small communities remote from the rest of us. An abandoned mining town, for example, where accommodations would be cheap. Offer no entertainment, no TV, internet, radio, or movies; the insane will not care, while those not insane will miss it enough for this to be a deterrent. The non-insane will also be deterred by separation from their families, friends, and familiar social networks; this will be an attraction for the insane.

If this sounds a bit familiar, it should. I’m describing something a lot like a monastery. There is a good reason for that.

Most of the mentally ill probably most need time to think, and time to deal with the spirits who are trying to communicate with them. Our current practice does everything we can to prevent this. Allow it, and I suspect most of the mentally ill will be able to cure themselves, most fairly quickly.

One of our biggest mistakes is in trying to coerce the mentally ill. Why do we do this? Probably because of the universal human urge to bully the weak. The runt gets pecked to death by the pack. But if the “mentally ill” are living apart, there is no longer any real need to force anyone to take medicine. Let them do it if they want, not do it if they want. Let them wander freely; into the woods away from everyone if they prefer.

The town would need most of the facilities of any small town: a restaurant for those who cannot manage to cook for themselves, a laundry for those who cannot manage to clean. A police force to keep people from eating one another. A doctor; ministers and churches. Postal service. But for the most part, treat these people as adults who know what is best for themselves, and have the right to decide things for themselves, while reducing stress where possible.

Besides preventing people from going off and shooting everyone in sight, this would almost certainly be far cheaper than what we do now for the “mentally ill.” Far more humane. And far more effective.