Arizona shooting.

I send my thoughts and prayers to this tragedy that has occurred in Arizona. Arizona has been a heated state over politics. Although the officials are not sure of the motive of this shooting spree it seems that there is a battle going on over. Some people are saying that this was Anti-democrat motive due to the recent protest and upheaval of democratic congressmen from the house. Others are blaming talk radio and TV shows (most likely Rush, Hannity and Beck are the ones being targeted here). But who is really to blame?

This person may or may have some political motivation but I don't see it as Anti-democratic based of the collection of books he favored. I think he was a schizoid. A person who may not have full blown schizophrenia but have certain characteristics of a person. I'm not a Dr. nor am I diagnosing him but from the knowledge of my career background as a nurse I can at least say this person was mental unstable.

So to blame media outlets on the grounds of free speech incited violence of a mentally ill person is an extreme statement. These people are already unstable. They are usually paranoid and very little can set them off. I've been to hell in back working with the most unstable people. The real blame is that we do not have a very good record of mentally ill patients in this country...nor do we check up on them regularly. This boy had a history but as far as i know never recieved treatment. It is hard to force treatment on someone over the age of 18. If you can it takes a long court ordered process to do so. There is history of mentally ill patients attacking and sometimes killing people at randomn, or because they looked at them funny, or for some other strange reason. So to go as far to say that political rhetoric and free speech rights somehow incited this violence in an isolated event is a bit far. These people, like I've already said, are already unstable. Anything in their mind might be right to them or they feel by doing this it is right even if the rest of the world views it wrong because in their mind they are right and everyone else is wrong so the rules do not apply to them.

Even now with a country that is torn apart and sides are blaming one another for speech, or bullseyes or crosshairs used by both parties are both guilty for stirring the pot of political rhetoric. The thing we have to get pass is how can we serve the mentally ill. How can we better intervene in a mentally ill person before they hurt themselves or others. That is how we can protect and prevent people from getting hurt.