More Access To Mental Health Services, Less Access To Weaponry

I am glad to see an emphasis on access to mental health services being added to a national conversation about stemming and preventing firearm violence.

And while I want to be optimistic about it, consider that right up until last Friday morning we were told by conservative opinion-makers:

1.  We are not all in this (the big "this") together;

2.  We need to trim back an already too-intrusive nanny state;

3.  Mental health treatment facilities or programs are too expensive and open to cuts (see 1, 2, above); 

4.  Higher education institutions should be re-oriented away from squishy social sciences and towards business or other more 'practical' majors the job-creators prefer.

I have life-long friends who have toiled in the mental health field. Everyone of them knows there has never been enough money to adequately address individual situations, or our communities' collective mental needs, or to pay trained counselors, social workers and other staffers competitive salaries.

There's a part of me that fears the gun lobby will distract us with a fresh emphasis on, or even a feigned interest, in vitally-important mental health care issues.

So prove me wrong: Let's have the gun lobby take the lead on lobbying for more financing for and universal access to mental health care services as part of a broader, safer-society blueprint that includes, for example, restrictions on the sale and importation of assault-style weapons, high-capacity magazines, and body armor for civilians.