Identify the whack jobs and the number of shootings will decrease.
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., thinks he has a solution for much of the surge in mass shootings. Rather than reacting with new gun control measures, Murphy proposes to overhaul the nation’s mental health system to get at what he believes is the root of the violence.
Recent mass murders have given that reform effort traction. And, in an interview, Murphy told The Daily Signal he hopes to refurbish federal laws to better help those who suffer from mental illness before they can harm others.
“This bill would have some of the most substantive reforms of the last 50 years,” Murphy said.
Although his bill would do little to stop an attack like the one Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif., Murphy said, it could prevent another mass murder like the one in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
In most such shootings, Murphy said, law enforcement “usually encounters someone who is untreated or undertreated for serious mental illness.” Early detection of the sickness is essential to prevention, he said.
A clinical psychologist turned congressman, Murphy, 63, sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on health. He began his investigation of federal mental health laws three years ago.
Now the House’s GOP leadership is pointing to Murphy’s bill as a specific solution to an ongoing problem of mass shootings.
“Clearly we can do more, and one common denominator in these tragedies is mental illness and that is why we need to look at fixing our nation’s mental illness health system,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Tuesday, speaking of the Planned Parenthood shooting.