Do you agree, president Reagan cutting funding for mental health funding in the 80's is a big part of the reason were dealing with gun violence?

[Anonymous]

Yes

No

[monorprise]

Reagan was President in the 80s while mental health hospitals were state institution which were being emptied in the 1960s and 1970s. Crime subsequently became a big problem during those decades.

The federal act your referring to that Reagan had congress largely repeal in 1981 was called the "Mental Health Systems Act of 1980" passed the same year.

Like every other would be implemented law you can claim it might have helped address the already ongoing crime wave. I tend to agree with Reagan on it being both unconstitutional and unhelpful.

If you want to blame it for the already decade + old crime and mental health problem your not being honest.

[nightdrot]

This is right on the money! I was going to write something similar, but monorprise nailed it! Could not have said it better myself.

The current problem with mental health began with the social theories of the 60s and the 70s when scientists - and thence society - decided that the institutionalization of the mentally ill was "cruel" and "bigoted." So the gates were opened and the crime rates began to rise - for this and other reasons.

The purpose of the law is first to protect society. Second to punish the guilty and, last and least important, to "reform the criminal" if possible. When society flips those priorities, bad things are apt to follow.

When these priorities began to be reversed in the 1980s, crime rates actually declined until the early 2000s when they reached levels not seen since the peaceful placid 1950s. Then, of course, society got comfortable, and the emphasis switched back to reform and other secondary priorities.

Presto! Our current crime rates.

Reagan's cuts reflected a shift back to the prioritization of protecting society first. They started the trend that led to the lower crime rates of the early 21st century. Consistent with Mr. Reagan's philosophy, there are things the state needs to do - law enforcement - and things it is not good at - treating psychological pathologies.

As the history of the last 60 years amply demonstrates, Mr. Reagan was not wrong.

[TroyDT2]

I'm a bit reticent to point blame for today's issues at someone whose term as POTUS ended in January 1989, especially since both major parties had unified control at various times since and thus could have made changes to things that they did not foresee four decades ago.

[jennifer_bloom]

I heard on the news that people who struggle need compassion and not drugs. This might not be true for everyone, but it’s true for most mentally I’ll people, if we had more charities and loving teachers and patient day care workers and polite bus drivers and waitresses and sweet and friendly personal support workers, violence would diminish a lot.

[Anonymous]

If mental wards are considered mental health, we need lots of them.

[NamerOfStars]

No- because he didn't. Congress did; he just signed it. Governor Reagan, on the other hand...

[FilmGuy93]

That is an absolutely wild take. There are many greater contributing factors for why society's mental health is in the toilet right now.

[Anonymous]

Why do modern industrialized countries with gun control have virtually no gun violence/mass shootings? Because gun control works.

[Asker]

Your forgetting those countries also have universal health care, so everyone has access to free mental healthcare. You can get rid of every single gun, won't do much as people will just use illegally obtained guns or will switch to other methods of killing.

[NamerOfStars]

And without guns, there's no violence at all! The UK, for example, TOTALLY doesn't have a problem with knife violence!

[Opinion Owner]

@NamerOfStars In 2018 5 people were murdered in the US per 100k people. In the UK 1 person was murdered per 100k people. Tell me again about the UK's murder problem. 🙄
data.worldbank.org/.../VC.IHR.PSRC.P5

Less guns = less violence. and every modern, industrialized country's lower homicide rate proves that.

[Opinion Owner]

Australia confiscated guns 26 years ago and has had 1 or 2 mass shootings since. After 2 mass shootings, England banned semi automatic weapons in 1987, then handguns in 1996 and has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world.

Are you saying all those would be mass shooters suddenly decided to seek mental health? lol, please. The correlation is clear: guns were banned then mass shootings and the homicide rate plummeted. All the evidence proves that.
www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback
www.scientificamerican.com/.../

[Opinion Owner]

Also if free mental healthcare was available prior to England banning guns, why was the homicide rate higher with more mass shootings then, but then suddenly plummeted once guns were banned?

[Anonymous]

No. Reagan was one of the best modern-day presidents we've ever had

[NamerOfStars]

Reagan? The grant-rigging, EPA-gutting, OPD-founding, Sewergate-starting, apartheid-supporting, drug smuggling genocide enabler who committed more acts of treason than John Tyler and Richard Nixon combined? With the exceptions of Fillmore, Dubya, Obama, Biden, and maybe FDR and Lincoln, Reagan was easily the WORST President we've ever had.