Mental heath clarion call from San Diego - stop mass shootings!

This letter to the editor is an echo opinion published in the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper:

Another mass shooting: Ignoring the mental health crisis leads to tragedy https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/08/the-latest-multiple-injuries-at-shooting-in-california-bar/  *

“Another mass shooting has readers looking for answers” (Nov. 8): This California tragedy is another sad example of what can happen when parents, who know their son and can see he needs medication or treatment, call the police for help to get their child taken to a hospital for evaluation and hold and are subsequently told by the police crisis team that he doesn’t meet the criteria of “a threat to himself or others” or is “gravely disabled.”

(In my Maine Writer's opinion, the evaluation criteria also considers the insurance status available to pay for the care of a person or child who is being evaluated.  It's just my opinion, but if there is a payment source for retaining the person under evaluation, that aids in getting them access to treatment.)

When will our country change the laws and definitions of when persons with a mental illness can be involuntarily medicated and treated until they are returned to rational thought? This untreated state, coupled with our weak gun ownership laws, is the crux of why these shootings are occurring. 

Linda Mimms, from Poway California

*Thousand Oaks acting Mayor Rob McCoy said that the city is hurting but will heal.