Obama's Gun Control Proposal: What's Actually In The Comprehensive Package
(SLIDESHOW) An Analysis by Wayne Dan Lewis, Sr. Author of: R U Politically
Motivated? © 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/obamas-gun-control_n_2490504.html?1358380967&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009#slide=1991647[1]
Before I even read President Obama’s administrative
response on Gun Control after the Newtown
I am one of the many who wrote to the White House
(www.whitehouse.gov), hoping against hope, that my call for focus on mental
health for those who act out criminally and with total disregard for life will
be provided some avenue toward receiving the necessary assistance visa vie
hospitals, clinics or treatment
facilities. While I counted 15 times the
word mental was mentioned either in conjunction with health or illness, I am
disappointed to a certain extent. I’ll
explain why shortly, but let me at least express gratitude for those portions
of the Executive Order that speaks to mental health, particularly for our
students who maybe subjected to acts of violence such as to what our nation has
witnessed in not only schools, but in movie theatres, on our military base(s),
in the work place, and at public gatherings such as was the case for former
Congresswoman Gabby Gilford. Below in
italics, are those segments of President Obama’s Executive Order that speak to
providing our children with counseling within our schools across the nation who
maybe subject to gun violence. And while
these approaches provide some level of comfort, they would appear to be too
late for many of our urban locations where violence is a deadly occurrence for
inner city youth. We hope however, that
the millions of dollars committed by President Obama, will be retroactively
provided, because too many of America
·
Mental Health
Coverage For Medicaid Recipients
There is some evidence
that Medicaid plans do not always meeting mental health parity requirements. In
an executive action, the Obama administration issued a letter to state health
officials insisting that these plans must comply with mental health parity
requirements.
·
Clarify Mental
Health Coverage In Private Insurance Plans
By executive action, Obama
announced a plan to finalize regulations that would require group health plans
offering mental health care to cover such services at parity under the Mental
Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. Additionally, the Affordable
Care Act requires all new small group and individual plans to cover mental
health and substance abuse services.
·
Mental Health
Treatment For Youth
Through
partnerships such as the newly proposed Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and
Resilience in Education), President Obama is urging Congress to take up a
comprehensive plan to reach 750,000 young people through programs for early
detection of mental illness and swift treatment. Project AWARE includes $15
million for training teachers and other adults who interact with youth to
detect and respond to mental illness.
·
Change School
Students
who are suspended or expelled are far more likely to repeat a grade, not
graduate or become involved in the juvenile justice system. The Obama
administration believes effective school discipline policies are critical to
addressing school and community crime and violence issues. Under Obama's
executive action, the Department of Education will collect and execute best
practices on school discipline policies and help schools implement these
policies.
·
$150 Million
For In-School Resources
The
Obama administration is urging Congress to take up a Comprehensive School
·
Resources For
Youth Who Witness Violence
To
help schools break the cycle of violence, the administration will urge Congress
to provide $25 million to offer students mental health services for trauma or
anxiety, conflict resolution programs and other school-based violence
prevention initiatives.
I have often referred to the issue of Gun Control after a mass murder of
this nature, a Misdirected Play. By
focusing on Gun Control, we rarely focus on the individual(s) who take killing
innocent people to an all time high.
There has to be something said about the mental health of a person who
kills without a reward or tangible benefit.
In other words, they are not walking away with millions of dollars, a
special coin, or even for political gain.
They just kill, and whether they kill themselves or not, their apparent
intrinsic benefit seems to be that they got our attention, because they needed
help. But again, I am no psychiatrist,
or psychologist.
I’ve worked around enough psychiatric patients to have a clue that
something about the alleged killer is asking for help. And to that end, this is where I believe the
President’s Executive Orders stop short.
These orders don’t address the person who picks up a weapon or weapons,
and prepares to not only kill, but be killed.
The weapon of choice is truly immaterial, because the choice of venue is
unmistakable: public. There had to have been other signs, but
someone, or something has played a recurring role significant enough to
diminish the potency of the calls for help.
The outcome has to be a classic diagnosis: Hurt others until it doesn’t hurt them
anymore to suffer from whatever is hurting them. Only a psychiatrist or psychologist knows for
sure.
Obviously, the President can’t address every eventuality. However, the number of incidents are piling
up, the number of innocent lives that are being lost are getting younger, and
the time for debate over Gun Control is one that will go on forever and a
day. But Mental Illness must take center
stage, or on the 50 yard line, or whatever analogy that best addresses
the increased incidents of people killing people for no other reason than to
get attention. I could be wrong, but
that signals a call for mental health assistance. Wouldn’t it be better if these people, or
better yet, these patients, could get the needed help because we opened the
doors to assistance, rather than close those doors?
Gun Control, and the associated drawbacks of debating the 2nd
Amendment, as well as the types of bullets (for example, armor-piercing), how
many bullets can be stored, or the types of guns that can be purchased (AK
models), and whether or not the government is trying to, or is able to take the
weapons from law-abiding citizens diminishes the competition for the need for
mental health. The President’s response,
commendable as far as how it addresses prevention with respect to our children
who are subject to be exposed to the violence of any weapon, whether a .357
magnum or M-16 rifle, and the need for counseling, but his Executive Orders
fall short in two areas, specifically.
A. It
does not address a need for those in need of mental health assistance, whether
individually, or families with loved-ones who have to face closing mental
health facilities, including hospitals, clinics and treatment centers. If his orders could be amended, even if
through the Affordable Health Care Act, it would open those doors, provide the
medical professionals and staff qualified to provide medications, counseling
and options for the best care available.
B. The
Executive Orders do not specify retroactivity.
Guns in schools go back over 20 or more years. There weren’t always grown men with guns as
in Sandy Hook Elementary, who may have needed mental health attention. There were young boys, many of whom were high
school students, inner city students who were either afraid of drug dealers, or
who may have themselves been involved in drugs, who brought guns to
schools. There were instances in which
kids were found with guns in their backpacks, afraid for their lives because of
gangs that made up a gauntlet to and from schools. Those were the days then, and still to this
day, inner city schools are already filled with security guards and police
officers. Are they any safer? The verdict is still out, but one of the
elements that remain missing in the aforementioned counseling through the
President’s Executive Order that will be provided to many schools going
forward, should they be the site of violence as we witnessed at Sandy Hook
Elementary, is whether those students who are currently exposed to violence in
their schools be eligible for that same counseling. Violence in schools have had no less effect
on many of our children in our inner city schools, and they too are in need of
the same counseling as referenced in the President’s Executive Order as posted
at the Huffington Post.[2]
President Obama is to be commended that he did not turn away
from this matter and let it become solely a Gun Control issue. He and Vice President Biden are to be
commended that they sat down and had the necessary dialogue about the violence
that is very much apart of our American landscape when it comes to matters of
readiness for those who act out as they do, especially due to mental illness . But there is room for improvement when it
comes to allowing Gun Control to take center stage while many men and women are
in need of mental health assistance.
There is room for improvement, when we forget those children who have already suffered and
continue to suffer in schools where violence, not exclusively guns, are a way
of life, and there is no counseling. So
I ask Mr. President that you make this Executive Order, Retroactive. Thank you and God Bless America
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