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This is not a gun control issue or a spoiled brat issue or a stupid kid issue. It's a mental health issue. This person had mental problems his whole life and was being treated by mental health professionals for them. From what I've heard so far, his family was doing everything "right" in getting him help and trying to deal with his condition. However, once a person is 18, they cannot be forced into therapy or medication or institutionalization without a court order. Further, up until the last year, he had not shown any signs of violence or aggression that would trigger a move to institutionalize him. When his family saw some of the videos he posted (not the one that was shown after this incident), they notified the SB police to check on him, which they did, and he conned them into believing he was not a threat to his own safety or anyone else's--the criterion for taking him into custody for mental evaluation. Add to this the fact there is no reporting of his mental health problems to data bases used for gun purchases because none of the mental health hospitalizations were court ordered or otherwise against his will.

The "experts" in the media always talk of missing the "red flags" in cases like this, but the truth is you often cannot see a red flag until the incident has happened. The behaviors that caused concern were being addressed by health care professionals. How potentially dangerous did they deem him to be? We don't know. The red flags that no one saw were when he bought his weapons and wrote his manifesto and that was because they were hidden until the act was carried out. The prior red flags only became obvious after the fact.

There are literally thousands of mentally unstable individuals like him that will never become violent, so how does society find the ones that will? Many of his "red flag" behaviors do not lead to a killing spree by others. We have a system where mental health is protected by privacy laws unless the judicial system is involved. Do we want it another way? If so, to what degree? I don't have the answer.

At this point, I'm reluctant to trash the parents, given what I've read so far. I know too many families that have a member with metal health issues that try everything possible to help them and, once the member is an adult, the family's hands are tied. My thoughts and sympathies are with the victims and their families. My fear is incidents like this will happen again and for similar reasons.