Not a question: Another mass shooting, Gilroy California, at a garlic festival.

@SW-User We can't cherry pick incidents individually and extrapolate from those that the entire country is bad. But, like each individual, we can, collectively, strive to be the best we can be. I think, in this instance, that would involve better mental health services and better website monitoring.

@4meAndyou there have been hundreds of these mass shootings in recent years, mostly in the US, mostly not attributable to terrorism. We should be looking for a cause.

@SW-User There have been different reasons for each of these mass shootings. IMO it all boils down to mental health issues.

Timothy McVeigh, recently executed, had political reasons for blowing up a building, as did some who have ISIS affiliations and drove vehicles into crowds.

I can't address the reasons for Las Vegas. No one can. The man who did that was very quiet and very sneaky.

But I can address the school shootings. Mental illness every time.

@4meAndyou I hate to further stigmatize the mentally ill

@SW-User Well, when they pick up an AR-15 and murder children I believe we have some justification in stigmatizing them. But for the millions who are ill and falling through the cracks, like our Veterans and college students and many others, there is no stigma in allowing our health care system a solid and well funded way to help them.

The VA is presently researching a very valid treatment and simple treatment for PTSD which can cause some soldiers to sink into a very deep depression and commit suicide. The experimental program at Walter Reed will be the test case for allowing the treatment to be used by the VA as a whole.

@4meAndyou mental health care is very important, and needs to be government funded because these people usually can't hold down a job with insurance.

@SW-User I believe you are correct. Trump did present a budget now DOA in the House which had at least 8 or 9 huge budget allocations for mental health.

@4meAndyou too bad necessary things can't be separated out from the bundle.

@SW-User The Democrat house in Congress is on a campaign to put a spoke in the wheel of anything Trump requests. His success makes them look very, very bad, so they have to prevent success for him.

@4meAndyou sounds just like what the repubs did to Obama. They killed bills they would have otherwise supported just to hurt Obama.

@SW-User Standard tactics in politics, and we, the people, all sit around getting angry, wondering why Congress is so dysfunctional.

@4meAndyou it's their job to be dysfunctional because the movement is away from democracy towards a very bad future.

@SW-User I agree with you wholeheartedly.

@4meAndyou just look at how they let Obama and then Trump rule by executive order.

@SW-User I believe that is not the President's fault. The Republican Congress blocked everything Obama wanted to accomplish, and now the Democrat House is doing that to Trump. Because Congress has become so massively dysfunctional, the country would fall apart if not for executive order.

@4meAndyou it's blatantly unconstitutional to rule by exec order. Now we have a republican Senate which won't pass any bills. Two wrongs don't make a right. Maybe impeachment should be about usurping congressional prerogatives. Except Congress gave away it's powers. A legit president would not accept these powers, and would say I do not want to be King.

@SW-User We had 8 years of precedent just prior to 2016. Congress is rusted solid.

@4meAndyou we sure did but it does not excuse the current occupant. Things always get worse with the next one.
Look at Clinton's anti terrorism bill setting up for Bush's Patriot Act.

@SW-User I'm ashamed to admit that during Clinton and Bush's reign, I was working full time, commuting 2 hours a day, and dealing with a disabled husband who was losing his mind.

I was peripherally aware that all these things were happening, and I do remember the fuss about the Patriot act, which did not concern me at the time. I felt that it was a small price to pay.