I found Liza Long’s plea troubling less for the seriousness of her difficulties than for her willingness to preemptively classify her son as a potential mass murderer. Maybe he is, but most likely he isn’t. And he probably won’t appreciate it when he learns what his mother thinks of him.
Regardless, I don’t understand the unwillingness of some to understand that a mentally troubled and potentially violent individual is more dangerous with an assault rifle in his or her hand than they are without one.
Ms. Long describes having to disarm her son of a knife recently, but she would have a much harder time disarming him of a gun that fires dozen of bullets in a few seconds.
She needs help getting her son help. I understand that. And I understand that, if she doesn’t get help, society at large may be threatened. But she reacted to her son’s recent violent outburst by collecting all the sharp objects in the house so that he couldn’t get ahold of any of them. That makes sense.
