It's been five days since the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, Connecticut. Classes resumed for most students in the town yesterday. Meanwhile, the families of victims continue to cope and mourn this week, as they bury their loved ones.
The shooting last Friday has re-launched a national dialogue over gun control, with several Democratic politicians calling for tougher regulations.The National Rife Association announced that they will hold a news conference on Friday to comment on the shooting and respond to the criticisms they've received.
As we debate the nation's gun control policies, there is another conversation taking place over the mental health resources available to troubled youth like the shooter, Adam Lanza. Rick Moody is someone who has thought a lot about access to mental health services. He's the author of "The Ice Storm," and he recalls being a troubled adolescent in high school.
"I wan an incredibly troubled kid in Connecticut who went through a lot of bad stuff in his 20s, and I often felt when I was younger…great affiliation with all the troubled kids of Connecticut," Moody told John Hockenberry. "I do think there are a lot of other sort of borderline kids trying to get through their lives in the United States today who could use a little sympathy and support, and that might be the thing that keeps them from doing something they regret."
President Obama Seeks to Narrow 'War on Terror,' A Closer Look at the IRS Inquiry, Boy Scouts to Allow Gay Members
The DSM and Mental Health in America
Lessons From a Female Union Electrician
Defining Normal After a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia, The Mayor of Oklahoma City, A New Kind of Commencement Speech
Diplomatic Damage Caused by Drone Strikes, In Defense of the DSM-5, Bob Woodruff's Advice for New Grads
The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
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Comments [3]
Seems that satan is lazy and always goes for the obvious to confuse ppl...we will not win this war were in if we don't control ourselves, we need to get smarter and informed so we always be one or as many steps ahead of the evil ones.
Just some ideas..
Put more diversion in rural areas..
Make locks for weapons and secure weapons at all times specially if you live in a boring town and have kids that don't have many friends.
Pay 10$ an hour or more or less and keep a security guard in all schools, they have them in banks to secure money why not secure children.
Account for every weapon, every weapon should be like owning a car.
Etc etc
What about the Mental Illness that pervades our whole nation. Every week we hear reports of innocent children and families who were killed by our military (and our allies, who we supply with weapons and advice). Where is the same type of outrage that killing our own children and citizens evokes?
What type of example does this provide?
There is something inherent in our country where mental illness is not accepted. I don't know what it is. Growing up in New York, going to shrinks and talking about sick thoughts, was part of the experience for a percentage of us... Foreign films, the art scene, museums, Woody Allen type friends, all helped me with my own struggles as a teenager...
I don't know what I would be like, had I grown up in a suburb in Connecticut, I'm actually glad I grew up in the Bronx, where mental illness thrived on the streets in a very overt sadistic way...( I never thought I'd think that was a positive environment over the isolation of the suburbs.)
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