Oregon legislators pass bipartisan bill to reduce suicide and domestic violence deaths

A statement from Ceasefire Oregon:

Today the Oregon legislature passed SB 719, the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) bill, which allows families and law enforcement to prevent tragedies by petitioning a court to temporarily suspend a person’s access to firearms and other dangerous weapons. The bill, cosponsored by Senator Boquist and Senator Burdick, is expected to be signed into law by Governor Kate Brown.

Oregonians now have an important tool to help reduce suicide, domestic violence, and shootings.

“People who are thinking of killing themselves or harming others often often show signs or declare their intentions well before committing the act. The first people to see those signs are often family members,” stated Joanne Skirving, president of Ceasefire Oregon. “An ERPO gives families and law enforcement a chance to intervene and perhaps prevent a tragedy. In Oregon, where suicide is 85% of all gunshot deaths, temporarily removing access to guns is especially important to prevent suicide.”

Washington state voters passed Initiative 14911, an ERPO law, in November 2016 by a 40 point margin (70% to 30%). Indiana and Connecticut2 also have versions of ERPO. In 2014, California passed AB 1014,3 called a Gun Violence Restraining Order, in response to a killing rampage earlier that year in Isla Vista.

Jenna Yuille of Americans for Responsible Solutions noted, “In 1999, Connecticut became the first state to pass a similar law and they've seen life-saving results. In the first 14 years of its implementation, police issued 762 orders, which helped save dozens of lives.4 We thank Senators Boquist and Burdick for their efforts to make ERPO a reality in Oregon.”

Once an ERPO has been filed, a court must find clear and convincing evidence that an individual is threatening harm to self or others, before the court can order the respondent to temporarily surrender any guns to the police. The respondent will not be able to buy, sell, or possess other firearms for a temporary period of time.

Penny Okamoto, executive director of Ceasefire Oregon explained the ERPO due process protections. “To protect the rights of the respondent, the bill establishes procedures for the respondent to request a hearing. The burden of proof is on the petitioner to show clear and convincing evidence.”  Okamoto added, “ERPOs are not to be taken lightly. False applications of ERPO or violation of ERPO is punishable by one year’s imprisonment, $6,250 fine or both.”

Passage of this bill has been a bipartisan effort across Oregon.

“Oregon continues to show that we can move past partisanship to find common ground when it comes to gun safety,” said Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety President Jenn Lynch. “Building on our bipartisan work in 2015 to address the nexus between domestic violence and gun violence, this legislation shows how leaders can move past political posturing to find real solutions to make our communities safer.”

Passing this bill is the culmination of work by many gun violence prevention advocates in Oregon including the family of Laura Magee, Melissa Keyser, Central Coast Ceasefire Oregon, Ceasefire Oregon, Americans for Responsible Solutions, the Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety, Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership, League of Women Voters of Oregon, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Brady Campaign, Pastor Mark Knutson, Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez, Rev. Chuck Currie, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Moms Demand Action, and Everytown for Gun Safety and thousands of individual gun violence prevention advocates across Oregon.

1. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/extreme-risk-protection-order-initiative-1491/
2. https://www.thetrace.org/2016/09/gun-violence-restraining-order-suicide-reduction-connecticut/
3. http://smartgunlaws.org/californias-new-gun-violence-restraining-order-law/
4. Swanson, Jeffrey W. and Norko, Michael and Lin, Hsiu-Ju and Alanis-Hirsch, Kelly and Frisman, Linda and Baranoski, Madelon and Easter, Michele and Gilbert, Allison and Swartz, Marvin and Bonnie, Richard J., Implementation and Effectiveness of Connecticut's Risk-Based Gun Removal Law: Does it Prevent Suicides? (August 24, 2016). Law and Contemporary Problems, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=28288

The Problem Of Guns And Suicide

This week is Mental Illness Awareness Week.  What better time than now to focus on the problem of suicide, which is usually the result of depression or PTSD. 

In my last post, guest blogger Erin Neathery described the effect that suicide had on her, after her husband ended his own life.  In mid-September, during National Suicide Prevention Week, I also posted about the suicide of a friend of mine, Guy Parsons, in my teen years.  In both cases, a firearm was used.

Some important statistics to keep in mind: 

• A little over half of all suicides in the United States use firearms. 
• More than 90% of attempts with firearms are fatal, far outweighing the success rate of other methods (such as drug overdose or cutting, which are about 3% successful) (source). 
• Suicides account for over half of all shootings.  
• Although most gun owners reportedly keep a firearm in their home for "protection" or "self defense," 83 percent of gun-related deaths in these homes are the result of a suicide, often by someone other than the gun owner.
• The majority of suicides are from an impulsive decision.  Seventy percent of suicide attempters decide to kill themselves on an impulse - less than an hour before their attempt.  The ready availability of guns makes for a deadly combination.
• Ninety percent of people who survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide.  
• 75% of youth suicides by gun used a parent's firearm.

The "why" of suicide is very important, but we also cannot ignore the "how" of suicide.  The availability of guns to suicidal people is a deadly combination.  Means matter.

For more statistics on guns and suicide, see the Brady Campaign web page on the topic.

Despite the fact that there are more suicide shootings than homicidal shootings or accidental shootings, you nonetheless almost never hear about them in the media.  As one medical professional I know recently told me, "The only time a suicide is reported is when it's a famous person or really young person who has been bullied before they committed suicide."  I would add that it is also reported if the suicide was in a very public manner or was a murder/suicide.  An acquaintance of mine who makes her living as a crime scene cleanup service, commented on the matter, saying, "Since suicides are rarely reported in the media, only those of us working in law enforcement, as first responders, or in crime scene cleanup see the full scope of the problem."  Here in Eugene, according to her, there is at least one suicide a week that she hears about.  So far this year, I only know of one that was reported in the media here, at it was a murder/suicide.

I know from the death of my friend that the suicide of a friend or loved one is intensely personal and wounding.  For this reason, most are not reported in the media, and usually those who were affected don't wish to talk about it.  This is understandable.

But the silence is also deadly.

Because of the silence, people vastly underestimate the scope of the problem.  This lulls them into a false sense of security.  They may realize that a loved one is depressed or acting irrationally, and may even hear them talk about suicide, but they don't think it could happen to them.  You hardly ever hear about it, after all, right?

If you know someone who is suicidal, there are some commonsense steps you can take to prevent tragedy.  Take every suicidal statement from someone seriously, no matter how insincere they seem.  Stay with them.  If possible, remove lethal weapons and non-critical medicines from the home, or urge them to do so voluntarily.  Get them mental counseling.  Tell other family and friends to watch them for danger signs.  These steps may seem imposing to some people, but imposing on someone is far better than losing them forever.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is an excellent source to learn about suicide prevention and warning signs.  Go here to find out about the risk factors and warning signs.  Click here to find out what you can do to help prevent suicide.  The C.A.R.E.S. suicide prevention organization is also a great resource.

Thomas Caffall – Another Law-Abiding Gun Owner… Until He Wasn’t

Murderer Thomas Caffall, gun nut

Let me introduce to you Mr. Thomas Caffall, Texas gun nut.  Mr. Caffall loved his dog.  He was an ardent conservative and fan of FOX News, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck, was a fan of “Tea Party Patriots,” and was against Obama.  And he was a law-abiding gun owner.  In fact, he LOVED his gunzzz.  In every way he fit the typical gun fetishist.

How do I know this?  Because I went to his Facebook page.  There you can see just how much he loved his guns.  He was very proud of his restored Russian Mosin Nagant rifle, and had many pictures of it.  He also had a picture of his new AK-style assault rifle, a Czech vz. 58, which he bought for $799, no tax, no shipping, from czechpoint-usa.com.  As he said, “Just picked it up today, can’t wait to try it out on the range.  :)”.  See the screencapture and picture with his comments.  He knew all about the cost it would take to get a fully-automatic machine gun, and seemed to dream of it. 

screenshot of Caffall's assault rifle, with his comments, from his Facebook page

Of course, the gun lobby and their lap dogs want us to think that assault rifles have nothing at all do to with killing large numbers of people.  If you listened to them, you’d think these “sport rifles” were only made to do target shooting and to shoot varmints. 

Caffall linked to an article advertising that you could get a free AK-47 with the purchase of a truck, in Florida.  “anyone looking for a new car needs to read this!” he wrote.

He had interesting quotes.  One, inaccurately attributed to George Orwell, stated, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” 

He then quotes Edmund Burke with an “intellectual quote of the day”:  "People crushed by the law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous."

As you can see from another screencapture (which is a partial representation), his likes included pages for gun companies and organizations, like the NRA, Mosin-Nagant, Beretta, vz. 58, Glock, Dragunov.

His list of “inspirational people” included snipers Vasily Zaytsev, Simo Hayha, and Carlos Hathcock, and gun inventors like Mikhail Kalashnikov, John Garand, Samuel Colt, and John Browning.

He was also mentally ill and dangerous and a “ticking time bomb”, according to his mother and stepfather, as stated in a news report: 

"He was crazy as hell," Richard Weaver, gunman Thomas Caffall's stepfather, told Houston station KPRC television.

"At one point, we were afraid that he was going to come up here and do something to his mother and me," Weaver said.

Shawn Kemp, a local acquaintance of Caffall’s, told The Eagle newspaper that he “fits the profile of a dude who might snap.”

Caffall seemed depressed and often talked about guns and war, Kemp told the newspaper.

"I don’t know the guy well, but I’ve been around him enough to know, well, that I’m not surprised at all,” Kemp said, adding that he had heard that Caffall planned to pawn some of his guns to pay his rent. 

…

"We were hoping he'd kill himself before doing something like this," Richard Weaver said. "We are just devastated for the families this SOB killed."

Even though the parents knew Caffall was a danger to himself and others, thanks to our gun culture there is almost no way they could have had his guns removed, just as the parents of the Café Racer shooter weren’t able to.

So what we had in Caffall was a man who had immersed himself into the gun culture, purchased many weapons including at least one assault weapon, was saturated with libertarian thought, and was dangerous even to his own parents.

But in America, that’s just fine for owning as many guns as you wish.

Constable Brian Bachmann

Then, yesterday, Constable Brian Bachmann, husband and father of two children and a 20-year veteran of law enforcement, arrived at Caffall’s College Station residence to serve an eviction notice.  Seems Caffall was buying too many guns and not paying his rent.  Caffall snapped and opened fire.

When the 30-minute firefight was over, Constable Bachmann and an innocent bystander, Chris Northcliff, were killed.  Caffall was mortally wounded, dying later.  Towne Holdsworth, who was helping her daughter move nearby, was wounded and is in critical condition.  A second officer was wounded in the calf.  Two other officers were wounded by shrapnel. 

In all, three people, including the shooter, were killed, and four were injured, by a previously law-abiding gun owner who was also mentally ill and armed with an assault weapon.

Was the gun he used the same one he had been so excited about purchasing, as pictured above?

Did he picture himself as a “rough man” standing “ready to do violence” as he had quoted on his Facebook page? 

Did he see himself as “crushed by the law” and an “enemy to the law” as in the Burke quote?

If you were able to go back in time before the shooting and talk to Caffall, would he claim that he owned his weapons for liberty and self-defense?  That owning an assault rifle was some sort of patriotic statement?

Don’t tell that to the victims and their families.  There are too many victims.  We are better than this.

The day of the shooting, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney once again towed the NRA message that no new legislation could help prevent shootings.  To Mitt and the NRA, such shootings are acceptable and unavoidable, and the cost of our "freedom."  But I care to differ.  Better mental health screening and reporting might have removed his guns or kept him from purchasing them and preventing the sale of assault weapons would have limited his lethality.  If our presidential candidates are not interested in creating new laws to reduce the 100,000 shootings a year, then what is their plan?  Do they have one at all?  Go HERE and demand that they answer this important question.


UPDATE:  Constable Bachmann was a police instructor and one-time police officer of the year.  If he can't defend himself against an armed attacker, what does this say about civilian conceal carry gun owners?

Colin Goddard Visits Oregon

Colin Goddard addressing the Million Mom March marchers at EWEB Plaza.

Oregon was visited in the last week by Colin Goddard.  Colin is a tall, handsome, 20-something who is extremely well-spoken and charismatic.  He is also a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech University massacre, and he has made it his mission to do everything he can to help prevent such a shooting from taking place again.

On a snowy, windy April day in Blacksburg, Virginia, young Americans pursued

a college education and their teachers engaged in providing it to them.  Colin was among them, in a French class in Norris Hall at Virginia Tech.  Earlier that morning, two people had been shot to death in a dormitory.  The shooter was at large.  Unfortunately, for most of the campus it was still business as usual.  Two hours later, while Colin and his classmates were doing their job as students, the shooter came to Norris Hall, chained the doors, and proceeded to open fire, going room to room and systematically shooting to death as many students and professors as he could.  His name was Seung-Hui Cho.

In the next 10 minutes were seen the best and worst of humanity:  a murderous killer on a rampage, and professors and students risking their lives to barricade doors and protect each other and help each other escape.  The situation ended when the shooter took his own life.  In the end, he had killed 32 people plus himself and wounded 17 others.



Colin talks to attendees after the Bijou showing.

 Colin Goddard was one of those wounded.  As explained in the documentary on the shooting that features him, "Living for 32," he was the first one to call 911, was shot four times, and survived the horror.  He still has three bullets in him, as well as a titanium rod in his leg.  He was 21 at the time.

Cho had been adjudicated mentally ill and a danger to himself and others, but because of Virginia's weak reporting of mental health records to the NICS background check system at the time, he was still able to purchase his handguns and ammo from a gun shop and pass the background check.

After recovering and finishing his degree at Virginia Tech, Colin has since joined the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.  He is touring the nation, showing the documentary and speaking at venues, mostly universities, Sundance and other film festivals, and now even public high schools. 

"Living for 32" is a powerful and thought-provoking documentary about Goddard and his efforts to bring awareness to the issue of gun violence in America.  In the film, he examines his change in thought about guns in America as he recovered from his wounds, discusses what it is like to be a survivor, and goes undercover to gun shows to demonstrate how anyone, including felons and the mentally ill, can purchase a gun without even showing ID.




Colin (tallest guy) and other marchers listening to Mayor Kitty Piercy at the Million Mom March.

  When I heard that Colin was travelling the nation, I immediately sought to bring him to Oregon.  You may have noticed I didn't post anything during the month of April.  This was because I was using all of my available time scheduling a tour of Oregon for Colin.  I'm proud to say that I and a team of other volunteers from Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation and Million Mom March had a slew of venues for Colin to speak at.

In five day's time Colin spoke at ten different appearances and radio interviews.  All showings were free to the public.

On May 5, Colin arrived in Eugene and immediately went to a live radio interview with KLCC, an NPR affiliate, and the "Northwest Passage" show with Tripp Summer.  Listen to it HERE.



Marching to reduce gun violence with Million Mom March.



On May 6, Colin spoke with three classes at South Eugene High School, showing clips of the documentary and discussing the issue of gun violence with around 138 kids and teachers.  A few hours later, he visited Thurston High School in Springfield, site of the 1998 shooting by 15-year old Kip Kinkle, Colin spoke with around 300 kids.  He made a tremendous impression at both schools, and the schools are eager to have him back.  That night, Colin made his way to Portland and the film to a small audience at Multnomah Friends Meeting.

On May 7, Colin met with another small group at Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, an institution known for advocating for peace and non-violence.  Then he made his way south again to a small showing at Oregon State University in Corvallis.  A reporter from the university newspaper, the Daily Barometer, was there and wrote up an article.

On Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8, came the annual Million Mom March in downtown Eugene.  With around 100 marchers watching, Colin spoke to the crowd and to TV and newspaper reporters, along with Mayor Kitty Piercy (who is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns), myself, a boy named Sage from the iMatter group, and a close friend of Officer Kilcullen, who had recently been slain by a mentally ill shooter.  A moment of silence was observed for Officer Kilcullen, and then we all marched a couple miles along the Willamette River.  All three major TV news programs covered the event (see HERE and HERE) as well as the newspaper, the Register-Guard (HERE). 

Colin addresses the Bijou Art Cinemas attendees.

On his last day here, May 9, Colin didn't stop to rest.  At noon he spoke with a class of about 190 students at the University of Oregon.  That evening, he had a very long and excellent interview with the U. of O. radio station, KWVA, which I think is the best I've heard with him.  Listen to it HERE.  Finally, he wrapped up his tour with a showing of the documentary and discussion at the Bijou Art Cinemas, with around 104 showing up.

In all, Colin spoke directly with an estimated 877 people in five days, not counting radio and TV interviews!

And what is the main message of all of this?  We need stronger background checks that are better at excluding the mentally ill and those who are criminals, for ALL gun sales, including at gun shows and for private sales, in all states and at all times.

I can't say enough how immensely proud I am of Colin Goddard and the way he has turned his personal trauma into a vehicle for change.  He is brave for taking on a difficult subject, and his efforts will almost certainly play a major role in making a new trajectory for our nation.

Keep up the great work, Colin, and I look forward to your next visit to Oregon!

"I think I've actually found a way to turn the negative experience in my life into something positive, something that will hopefully bring change."

-- Colin Goddard, from the KLCC radio interview

(all photos courtesy of Jasmine Rose Penter, photographer and Ceasefire Oregon volunteer)

The Best Tribute for a Fallen Officer

It's been a sad week here in the Eugene, Oregon area.  Last Friday, April 22, motorcycle officer Chris Kilcullen was headed home along highway 126 when a beat up red Buick Skylark tailgated him, according to a witness.  The Buick then tried to pass Officer Kilcullen, and at one point swerved dangerously into his lane, almost hitting him.  Kilcullen then turned on his lights, and the Buick suddenly raced off, with Kilcullen in pursuit.  The chase left Eugene and headed into Springfield.  Finally, at a busy crossroad, the motorist pulled over to the side of the road.  Kilcullen pulled his motorcycle up to the driver's side door, at which point the driver pulled out a .38 revolver and shot Kilcullen once in the side, just above his body armor.  Kilcullen fell off his bike and slumped against the wheel of a neighboring big rig.  The Buick then sped off, with officers in pursuit.  It eventually wound up way down near Lowell and onto some Forest Service roads until it hit a dead end.  Officers began a long negotiation and eventually arrested the suspect.

Eugene Police Officer Chris Kilcullen

The shooter turned out to be 56 year-old Cheryl Kidd, a developmentally disabled woman with a long history of schizophrenia and erratic behavior.  In her schizophrenic mind, she had thought the police had been following her prior to the incident, and had trouble focusing during the interrogation after being caught.

Officer Chris Kilcullen died soon after, at the hospital.  Kilcullen is the third officer to be shot in the line of duty in Oregon in the short 4 months of this year, and the second to die as a result.  And in the city of Eugene, this is the third officer to die while on the force this year (the first accidentally shot himself at a shooting range, the second had a heart attack).

The entire week, our city experienced a unified sadness and outpouring of grief at the death of this 12-year veteran of the police force.  A father and husband.  A man who volunteered with local non-profits.  A man resoundingly loved by his fellow officers.  Blue lights were being put into porches as a sign of support.  The legislature is considering a bill to erect signs to commemorate a stretch of highway for him.  There are even online murmurs of renaming the entire highway after him.  On Friday, April 29, a procession of around 400 emergency vehicles from all over the state and surrounding states, and even Canada, drove a long route past the point of the shooting, through downtown Eugene, and to the new Knight arena where a memorial service was held.  Thousands showed up to pay their respect.  Flags are still being flown at half mast, by order of the governor. 

Wow.  This is an amazing tribute to a fallen officer.  And well-deserved, I'd say.  Our law enforcement officers take their life in their hands every day, with every traffic stop, to protect and to serve.  They are all heroes.  I could only wish that my passing could be so marked.

And yet, despite all of this outpouring, what, if anything, is being done to keep it from happening again?

How did this woman, who had such a long history of severe neurological problems, get a handgun?  Did she steal it?  Did she buy it on the black market?  No.  It turns out she went down to Mazama's Sporting Goods store at the local mall a year ago and purchased it like anyone else can.  After a 5-minute background check, which she cleared, she walked out with it, ready to do as she pleased, schizophrenic or not.

But wait!  Don't background checks look for mental illness already?  Yes, but you can only be entered into the NICS background check database, and rejected for gun sale, if you have been ruled as mentally ill in a court of law or been committed to a mental institution.  Neither of these are the case with Kidd.  Nor was she a convicted felon, abuser, or on parole.  In short, despite her long illness and reduced mental capacity, there is NOTHING that kept her or anyone like her from purchasing or possessing a firearm. 

Nor for Michael Thomas Mason, who suffered from severe PTSD and last December shot randomly at cars in the parking lot of the same mall where Kidd got her weapon (less than 50 yards away, in fact) and was subsequently shot by police and made a paraplegic.  Nor for a mentally ill man who had a shootout with police in Eugene in 2006.  Nor for untold numbers of other shooters elsewhere in the U.S., such as Jerod Lee Laughner of the 2011 Tucson shooting, or Seung-Hui Cho of the 2007 Virginia Tech University shooting.

So what can be done?  Certainly not everyone who is mentally ill is a danger to himself or others, so you can't just remove the second amendment right for all mentally ill or mentally handicapped individuals, right?  But clearly something must be done to keep those who are dangerous to themselves and others, or have reduced mental capacity to understand when it is right or wrong to pull the trigger, from being able to possess guns.  Even the father of the slain officer Chris Kilcullen agrees.

As a result of this tragedy, at last Oregon lawmakers are considering this loophole. 

It is my opinion that there should be a clear mechanism where a mental health professional, believing a subject to be a danger to himself or others, should be able to put that patient on a list for a temporary suspension of gun rights, subsequent to consideration by a panel of mental health experts to put the subject into the NICS database for a longer period, there to stay until the subject can get that panel to judge him or her reasonably cured of the illness.

So, while it was nice to have the memorial service, flags at half mast, blue lights on porches, a 400-vehicle procession, and the potential naming of a highway as honors for this fallen officer, wouldn't it be a more fitting tribute to keep it from happening again?  Let's make a new trajectory for our communities and do better at adding dangerously mentally ill people to the background check databases.

(Post-script:  only 3 days after Officer Kilcullen was shot by Cheryl Kidd, a well-to-do doctor purchased a gun and ammo, came home and, after scaring his wife by leaving some ammo and the receipt for his new gun on the kitchen table, shot up the neighborhood  and then killed himself.  The news report is sketchy, but I happen to know a neighbor of the shooter, who told me about the terror of that day and some information about the shooter and his family.  Severe depression is just as deadly as other mental health disorders, and should also be grounds for temporary suspension of gun rights if diagnosed).

UPDATE (5/2/11):  http://www.kval.com/news/local/121111569.html  A psychiatric evaluation showed the suspect, Cheryl Kidd, to be diagnosed with "schizophrenia, grossly disorganized thinking, extreme paranoid delusions and the inability to differentiate the past from the present."  Also, "In January, Kidd's primary health care provider sent her to the emergency room for a mental health evaluation."  In her delusion she thought the police had fired at her a couple times in the past, and that officer Kilcullen had shot out her window.  Too bad there wasn't a mechanism to stop her from possessing a gun back in January.

(image taken from HERE)

PTSD and the Mason Case

Let's say there's a man who had been professionally trained by the military to kill with firearms.  He has suffered for 3-4 years with such a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that he could hardly sleep, suffered from flashbacks, couldn't hold a job, and had severe stomach problems, throwing up daily.  Years of therapy with the VA had failed to help him.  He has become so emotionally unstable that fireworks spook him, driving terrifies him, and other loud, unexpected noises like a shattered drinking glass cause him to explode. 

Do you think this man should possess a gun? 

Do you think allowing him to possess a gun might be unacceptably dangerous to him and those around him?  

Consider the case of Michael Thomas Mason, age 27.  On December 15, 2010, he was at the mall here in Eugene when he had a severe PTSD psychotic break.  He randomly fired into a busy parking lot with his 9mm handgun, striking several cars.  Luckily, no one was injured.  He then drove off, driving recklessly in his SUV.  Police soon tracked him down and gave chase, ending up in the nearby town of Santa Clara.  Two police officers convinced Mason to drop his gun out his window, but Mason didn't respond to other commands, and was moving erratically in his vehicle.  When the two officers thought (mistakenly) that Mason was reaching for another weapon, they fired three times.  Two shots hit Mason.  He survived, but one of the bullets hit his spinal cord, paralyzing him.  Mason is now a quadriplegic and is wheelchair-bound. 

(On a related side note, this wasn't a first for either officer:  Officer Marcus Pope had shot and injured a murder suspect in November 2008 who had attacked him with knives, and the other officer, Bill Solesbee, had been one of nine SWAT members who shot and killed another attacker in Creswell in January 2003.  All of these shootings were considered justified.)

Last weekend there was a two-and-a-half page feature on Mason in the local newspaper, complete with color photos.  It was a very good article about the man -- a biography -- entitled "For the Love of a Soldier."   The article went into detail about how he had been an Eagle Scout and sheriff's cadet, how he has always had a very close relationship with his family, how he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as a Eugene city policeman, and how, after 9/11, he enlisted with the army and served in Afghanistan.  He is an honest man with a history of citizenship, devotion to country and family, and is an honest-to-god war hero.

This is a man who, from an early age, had been taught firearms safety and usage, who has used good judgment, and was professionally trained by the military.

But even honest men with lots and lots of training can't see the danger that having firearms around can bring, particularly with mental illness.

You see, Michael Thomas Mason had suffered in Afghanistan.  He was in many live-fire situations.  And in one particularly horrible event, he watched as his army buddies were blown up by an IED.  Mason was tasked with collecting what was left of them.

After his tour of duty ended, Mason returned to Eugene, hoping to follow in his father's footsteps and become a police officer, but he was turned down.  He suffered from PTSD.  He sought therapy from the VA.  Loud, unexpected noises sent him spirally out of control.  He couldn't work.  He was physically sick.  He was depressed.  In fact, he IS the theoretical person I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

And then the shooting events of last December happened.

That two-and-a-half page article did a lot to show how horrible the effects of PTSD are to our veterans, and illustrated quite nicely how Mason suffered and how he had been such a great young man.  Only a few paragraphs on the third page actually mentioned the shooting. 

But nowhere, in that article or any of the others, was the most obvious question asked:  

 If Mason was so emotionally unstable, why was he allowed to have a gun?

His VA therapist knew he was fragile and potentially violent.  His wife knew it.  His friends and family knew it.  HE knew it.  But at no point, apparently, did anyone stop to ask Mason if he would be willing to give up his firearm.  And, apparently, he was not forbidden to purchase a firearm.  He is a poster-child for strengthening  the mental health reporting of the NICS background check system.

PTSD is nothing new to our veterans, by any stretch.  Of course people who witness and take part in wartime killing come back emotionally scarred.  Wouldn't you? 

The problem is that the military isn't dealing with PTSD  effectively enough. 

PTSD has been linked to many homicides.  It is hard to find those links, since homicides are generally dealt with by local jurisdictions, not the military, unless it is on military property, and the link to PTSD isn't always reported on.  No federal department, including the military, keeps track of it, that I can find.  If anything, they seem to downplay PTSD links to homicides, in an effort to diffuse the "crazy returning veteran" stigma.  But refusing to acknowledge a problem doesn't make it go away!

One investigation by the New York Times in 2008 studied homicides by veterans between 2001 and 2008:

This showed an 89 percent increase [of homicides by veterans] during the present wartime period, to 349 cases from 184, about three-quarters of which involved Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. The increase occurred even though there have been fewer troops stationed in the United States in the last six years and the American homicide rate has been, on average, lower.

[M]ilitary health care officials are seeing a spectrum of psychological issues, with an estimated half of the returning National Guard members, 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of marines reporting mental health problems, according to a Pentagon task force.

Decades of studies on the problems of Vietnam veterans have established links between combat trauma and higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, gun ownership, child abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse — and criminality. On a less scientific level, such links have long been known.

The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, considered the most thorough analysis of this population, found that 15 percent of the male veterans still suffered from full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder more than a decade after the war ended. Half of the veterans with active PTSD had been arrested or in jail at least once, and 34.2 percent more than once. Some 11.5 percent of them had been convicted of felonies, and veterans are more likely to have committed violent crimes than nonveterans, according to government studies. In the mid-1980s, with so many Vietnam veterans behind bars that Vietnam Veterans of America created chapters in prisons, veterans made up a fifth of the nation’s inmate population.

As Iraq and Afghanistan veterans get enmeshed in the criminal justice system, former advocates for Vietnam veterans are disheartened by what they see as history repeating itself.

But it isn't just homicide.  Suicide is another major issue that is linked to PTSD and, more often than not, firearms.

From THIS article from the Wall Street Journal:

A 15-month-study on the rise in suicides over the last two years found 160 suicides among active-duty personnel, 1,713 suicide attempts and 146 deaths from high-risk behavior, such as drug abuse, in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009.

The number of suicides has been climbing since 2005 when there were 87 confirmed and unconfirmed suicides.

The current numbers are the highest since the Army began tracking the issue in the 1980s. Veterans groups say it's hard to make comparisons to the Vietnam era because of changes in how the data are tracked. Military suicide rates also tend to increase during wartime.

Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the vice-chief of staff of the Army who has led the effort to reduce suicides, said that 79% of suicides were soldiers who had one deployment or had yet to be deployed.

There's a graph on that page which shows a meteoric rise in suicides by servicemen, which I have reposted here.

Another article by TIME magazine has shows similar numbers.  From that article:

"Combat increases fearlessness about death and the capability for suicide," said Craig Bryan, a University of Texas psychologist, briefing Pentagon officials in January. The combination of combat exposure and ready access to guns can be lethal to anyone contemplating suicide. About half of soldiers who kill themselves use weapons, and the figure rises to 93% among those deployed in war zones.

In a Huffington Post article on the subject, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki commented that of the more than 30,000 suicides each year in America, about 20 percent are committed by veterans

The effects of PTSD are horrible, leading to substance abuse, domestic violence, depression, and potentially suicide, homicide, and psychotic breaks.  Can the veterans be blamed for their destructive actions?  Not really.  We as a country have to do a better job at treatment and prevention.

So I don't blame Michael Thomas Mason for shooting up a parking lot and having behavior that led to him becoming a quadriplegic.  It's tragic.

But this shooting didn't have to happen.  Nor do most of the PTSD-related homicides and suicides.

Here's what we can do to limit the homicides and suicides, which typically involve firearms.  First, the veterans, their families, and their therapists must insist that the veteran remove all weapons from his possession.  Second, if he has severe PTSD reactions, to the point that he has to seek therapy and may have a psychotic break, or if he has expressed violent or self-destructive behavior, he should be listed as mentally unfit for gun ownership and purchase with the NICS background checking system.  Finally, cases of PTSD-related crimes should be reported on, highlighting the dangers of PTSD and gun ownership.  Awareness and education is key in treating and understanding this issue.

Let's work together to prevent another Michael Thomas Mason shooting event, and create a new trajectory for our communities.

UPDATE (1/28/13):  Today it was announced that Michael Mason has, after just over two years of suffering in paralysis, has died from his wound, while at the VA hospital.  HERE is a good write-up about his death and the severity of his PTSD.