In the wake of two back to back mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado, one former U.S. Congressman is suggesting we need to do a better job of dealing with mental health issues.
Former U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, who is also a psychologist, says that there are some key provisions missing from our current mental health laws, and these include things like:
"...creating the allowance that insurance or medicaid would pay for more psychiatric hospital beds and people could stay there longer".
Murphy also says treatment for the mentally ill should be mandatory, especially since many folks don't even realize they're sick.
"...and so the idea of taking away someone's rights to force them to get treatment for their mental illness, it pares in comparison to the fact that once they're in jail, they don't have rights anymore".
Murphy was a guest on the News Radio KDKA morning show.
How much of a role that mental illness plays in mass shootings is still being debated, however. A recent Columbia University study suggests that mental health is not a factor in most mass shootings or other types of mass murder.
