After shootings, Colo. governor proposes more mental health services

Scott Pelley speaks with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper about passage of the initiative to make marijuana legal for recreational use and the impact the governor feels it will have on his state.

After a recent spate of mass killings, Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., is proposing $18.5 million of funding for mental health services, CBS News has confirmed. The proposal is in response to the deadly movie theater shootings in Aurora in July that killed 12 and injured 58.

The funding proposal must be approved by the Colorado legislature, but it would beef up mental health services around the state. The proposal would fund additional walk-in mental health clinics, short-term transitional facilities for mental health patients and a crisis hotline, according to the Coloradoan.

Hickenlooper's proposal comes as calls for increased support for mental health funding escalated after 20 children and seven adults were killed in Newtown, Conn., Friday. President Obama has vowed to meet with mental health professionals to prevent similar events. Even Republicans who are shying away from talk about gun control say mental health should be discussed, including Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who said "there must also be a serious and thoughtful discussion on mental health issues."

[RuinedbyBush]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We will do this and we will do that, legislate mental issues, and reign in assault weapons and debate and debate and in the end:

NOT DO A GD THING.

So, let's save ourselves the trouble and at least move to protect our kids in schools. We can then move to malls, etc.

First: all schools have installed very large, and as secure as possible, large fences. All schools have one way in, one way out. New rural or urban construction has schools with a long single road connecting the facility to the roads. Guard houses with security, TV monitoring and armed guards. Metal detectors. Bullet proof glass. Armed security guards. Basically the necessary infrastructure to simulate the TSA and security that occurs before boarding a plane.

Unless we are willing to implement other measures to cure the ill, this is the only solution I see. Just put all the costs of this on the backs of the American people, the gun nuts, the NRA, the gun control advocates can all share in the cost.

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
financing mental health services is a good thing.
providing it does not become a reason for encouraging and justify the shootings. James Holmes is perfectly sane, he killed with cold blood, he deserves exemplary punishment. Being in denial is useless.
"au revoir"

[rolloffdebunk]

What responsibility do news organizations have in scaring people to the point of amassing caches of food and buying guns?

[rolloffdebunk]

his mother had a cache of food and plenty of weapons. she believed strongly that because of the recession people were gonna come for her stuff - tv news hysteria!

[Well_You_Aint_Me]

Finally, a politician who "Gets It"

This recent massacre shouldn't be about "gun control".

It IS a mental health issue, where the psychopath got his hands on guns.

[valanis]

Absolutely agree, a democrat with common sense. Not a knee jerk reaction to for gun control. Are you going to stop building cars because of drunks killing people while driving? Get to the source of the problems and fix it.
We actually need concealed weapons in school, that way when you have nut jobs like this come in, you can have a teacher do the world a favor and blow his butt off the face of the earth!

[signseeker1717]

Talk about "gun control" isn't about "this RECENT massacre" it's about this LATEST massacre being the LAST STRAW in the public's tolerance for an insane, irrational gun culture.

While I applaud the efforts of the CO gov., this is just ONE part of the puzzle, and NOT enough to solve the problem. And can't you hear the "fiscal conservatives" already? NO! NO MORE TAXES, NO MORE SPENDING! WE CAN'T AFFORD IT! (But can we afford NOT to?)

And it is "knee jerk" to suggest armed teachers would have prevented this mass killing. There is NO proof of that; there is not ONE instance of an armed citizen PREVENTING a mass killing no matter WHERE it's happened: They've occurred in a mall, a movie theater, college campuses, high schools, a MILITARY facility and, now, an elementary school. The only common denominator is the killer used MILITARY-STYLE weaponry intended for COMBAT, NOT personal defense.

Wouldn't teachers have to be armed with SIMILAR weapons or be "outgunned"? Do we want firearms like that around SCHOOL children? What's to prevent THEM from getting access to the gun and harming themselves? Lock up the gun and/or ammo, perhaps? But then wouldn't it be hard to get them out quickly in the event of an attack, and the teacher likely killed before she could actually get the thing out, load it and THEN shoot the attacker?

A measured, balanced approach is what is needed, and many suggestions are appearing. Among them: Mental health testing for gun purchasers AND their minor children; yearly required license renewals; limits or bans on AMMO, etc., even armed guards, metal detectors and better security at all public facililties, not just government buildings and schools.

But then we'd have complaints about the "rights" of people to carry concealed weapons, and the obsession some people have with carrying guns everywhere THEY go, regardless of the safety considerations and concerns of OTHERS. Where does your "right" to have a gun infringe on MY right to to be ALIVE?!

Re mental health, the young man who killed these children had already been diagnosed with Asberger's Syndrome, a highly functioning form of autism with violent tendencies. He had been under counseling and supervision in HS, with an assigned psychologist. Trouble is he GRADUATED. At 18, he became an adult and NO ONE, not even his mother, could have MADE him continue to get help. And you can't "commit" people with autism or send them to mental health facilities that don't EXIST (This country emptied and closed hundreds of mental health facilities decades ago and replaced them with the panacea of medications).

We need to think these things through; there are NO simple solutions, and no ONE solution.

P.S. That "car" Straw Man argument is so lame I can't believe people are STILL using: Automobiles are VEHICLES, not weapons; when used AS INTENDED they ONLY provide transportation. An AK-15 is an assault rifle; it is a WEAPON, and ONLY a weapon, with NO other purpose than to damage or kill; when IT is used AS INTENDED it spews carnage.