So much long term stress and pressure can put some people over the edge.

Shockingly sad story.

intervention would have been to first step: take away the gun. This is what gun control advocates have been calling for all along, but the right-wing gun lobby and their apologists claim that would be a violation of rights. They claim to believe that increased access to mental health care would solve the problem of these kinds of tragedies and most suicides.

So in the end, what immediate good would universal health care do in a volatile situation like this? Would forced psychological counseling at the early stages of the relationship be mandated? How would a family member be forced to undergo a medical examination? The answer is that at the first sign of instability, and if there is a gun in the house, the law should allow the police to remove the gun, and THEN mental health care can be started.

The Second Amendment absolutists call for better health care would have little bearing on someone who "snapped" and killed their family, or committed suicide because of a sudden (or rapidly festering) upheaval in their lives. Easy access to a gun has been proven to be a factor in family-related or close relationship murders, and most suicides. Removing the most obvious means to kill or injure should be the first step in any intervention process.

That is the angle of approach I was referring to.
Without the overwhelming stress of a sick child and not enough money to care for her, the entire cycle of financial stress would have been removed. Plus, getting psychological care would have been available w/o increasing their medical costs.

I just trashed the gun forum.

Prayers up, and working legislation for universal single payer health care including mental health.

and I agree that universal single payer health care is a step in the right direction. The ability to legally remove a gun from a troubled environment is just as important in cases like this one, in my opinion.

A hui hou, malama pono from Maui.

Nice to meet you!

I just moved back to CD 2 and voted yesterday

CD2 on Oahu, or Neighbor Island? I've been voting "absentee" since they allowed it, and it is great.

Aloha no,
Bill

Windward side votes with you folks.

Re absentee voting, me too, but I moved. Rules and stuff. I registered for permanent absentee voting again yesterday. Frees me up for last minute gotv and sign waving, etc.

Thanks for hipping me to the gun control reform activism group. That's the way to go.