Psychiatric Tests Could Prevent Tragedies Such as the Tech Massacre…
‘Combustible Problem’: Psychiatric Tests Could Prevent Tragedies Such as the Tech Massacre… Richmond Times-Dispatch
May 5, 2007
By Alen J. Salerian, MD
In an America where guns are easily accessible and where there are a large number of people with psychiatric vulnerabilities, we have a combustible problem for our society.
Tomorrow’s killers are predictably going to be people suffering from severe psychiatric disorders. In the United States, which is basically an armed nation, 3% of the population suffers from a bipolar illness, one in five people will have severe depression during their lifetimes, and 30,000 people commit suicide every year. It is estimated that every year 1000 homicides are committed by people with mental illness.
The numbers are astounding. Psychiatry has learned that some mentally ill people are desperate enough to make up their minds to get rid of their imaginary or real enemies, a core dynamic that did contribute to the massacre at Virginia Tech.
This behavior is the result of a complex illness, which has predictable outcomes and, most important, which has predictable solutions to prevent those outcomes.
Today, there are some 60 million Americans who own more than 200 million firearms. We are an armed nation. Indeed, we have the largest number of guns in private ownership of any country in the world.
The fact is that this situation is not going to change soon. Moreover, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
What then is the solution to preventing predictable killings by mentally ill individuals who easily get access to guns?
Federal law prohibits anyone who has been judged by a court of law to be a danger to himself or others from purchasing a gun. Yet, Seung-Hui Cho’s name was not in the federal database maintained by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and so he was able to buy the guns he used to go on a killing spree at Virginia Tech.
The problem is that there is frequently a disconnect between state requirements for reporting on mentally ill people and the federal requirement that mentally ill people should be prohibited from buying firearms. Some states have rules that prohibit the reporting of names of mentally ill people to a federal database. In other cases, states’ standards for reporting mentally ill people to the database are different from the federal standard. Obviously, the system that is meant to prevent mentally ill people from buying firearms does not work.
The young English major who turned into a mass murderer proclaimed in his video, “I have given you billions of chances.” Indeed, he did give unmistakable warnings of his diseased mind. His writings and his behaviors scared his fellow students and his teachers. In one instance, he was psychiatrically evaluated and even hospitalized. Yet, he was allowed to purchase two guns, several clips and ammunition.
The solution that would have prevented Seung-Hui Cho from purchasing those handguns, clips and ammunition – and the solution that would prevent others with psychiatric disorders from purchasing guns in the future – would be to make a simple psychiatric test a prerequisite for the purchase of guns in this country.
Such a test would have prevented Cho from getting the guns to act out his homicidal behavior.
In order to drive a car in this country, you have to take a vision test and a driving test in order to prove that you will not be a danger to yourself or others when you drive.
True enough, many drivers, after passing the test, go out on the highways and drive recklessly and cause great harm to themselves and others. However, the driving test serves as a barrier and as a legal standard, which serve as significant limitations on bad driving.
In the case of guns and people with psychiatric disorders, we know that a simple test administered by a paraprofessional, which would take all of 30 minutes, could screen out those with psychiatric disorders and prevent them from buying guns.
A combination of the BPRS (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) test, which takes about 15 minutes; the Overt Aggression Scale Test, which takes about 10 minutes; and the California Risk Estimator for Suicide Test, which takes about 5 minutes, would suffice. The results of these tests are fairly reliable predictors of homicidal or suicidal behavior.
America needs to come to terms with the simple fact that the mixture of guns and people with psychiatric disorders is a predictably violent mix. If America does not take steps to prevent this mixture from occurring, we can count on more massacres in the future.
Requiring purchasers of guns, gun accessories, and ammunition to show evidence they have passed a psychiatric test would have prevented Cho from getting the guns and ammunition he needed to kill 32 people and himself. It would also prevent countless future mass killings and countless other homicides committed by mentally ill people who are now able to elude the federal law. This is a solution America needs to act, now.