My wife was delivering her mail and asked a lady, "What was all that shooting about?" The lady said, "That was us." and showed my wife her entrance and exit wound from a .22. Her husband was nearly shot in the head.

What happened? An older man (retired nurse) never acted this way, but apparently he is getting some spells of dementia. He was walking around the block and cussed some kids out for making too much noise. They kids told the lady keeping them what he said, so she went out to talk with him, only to say, "Don't cuss at the kids, come to me if you've got a problem.' He started arguing and escalating. He pointed his finger like a gun to her forehead and said, "I'm going to kill you." Her husband had come out by this time and the guy went to his house, got his gun and started shooting. The next day he probably didn't even remember anything happening, but he's arrested and charged with four counts of attempted murder. (A couple of the kids were close by). The man is nothing like that as long as he's straight, but if he's not.... watch out.

I'm really angry at the lack of facilities for mental patients in this state. (They closed down all public facilities) The only place you go with a problem like that is jail if you can't afford a private hospital.. I know several people that don't belong in jail, but really need to be taken off the street. (Nobody I know has tried to kill anybody, but the police are at one woman's house several times a week. She doesn't deserve to be in jail, but neither does she belong running loose.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Yeah, I understand. In Maine we do have places for people in crisis to go but funding for mental health, developmental issues, brain injury, etc is just shameful. Providers struggle to stay in business, workers are terribly underpaid, people wait for services.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

He should not have had access to firearms in his condition.

I have a neighbor like that only it is self inflected. Late 20s earley30s. Police are called at least once a week. A few more mount's I move to AZ. hopefully it doesn't come to a head before I am gone.

but how do we know until its too late?

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I fish, therefore I lie

I knew a guy from old high school days who tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide using a firearm several years ago. He seriously wounded himself, but lived. His life has been a patchwork of alcohol and drug abuse. When he was in rehab, he was fine, but he couldn't shake the chemical dependency issue that cost him a marriage and his career. Now, he is withdrawn and angry at the world. He is armed, and I consider him a possible threat to himself and others.

....but it's going to have to be enforced by his wife or he will do it again. If that can't be done the only thing to do is get him off the street and jail isn't the place for him.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Well, we really don't know what his condition is, do we? All I see here is he's "apparently" suffering from dementia. "Apparently" isn't a medical term, nor is it a legal one. So I can't see denying someone access to firearms based simply on the OP's post. And he's charged with four counts of attempted murder? Okay, well let's see the news story about this. Someone gets charged with four counts of attempted murder, it's gonna make the local news. I can't find it.

Then there's that lady who has the cops at her house "several times a week" and shouldn't be "running loose". What? Really? Why? Apparently the cops think she's okay to be running around loose.

What's that mean, anyway, "running loose"? She running up and down the streets or something? Yelling and screaming, waving her arms in the air or what?

They're gonna arrest her just because someone thinks she should be locked up? Bunkum.

The few neighbors that I have are convinced that I'm crazy. Okay... maybe I've cultivated the image a bit, but it sure keeps everyone nice and polite.

I haven't heard the word "bunkum" in decades.

Nice touch.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Many eons ago, when I was but a wee lad, they had what were called "asylums," state run hospitals where those who were impaired, enfeebled, chemically dependent, etc., were housed. Seems like one batch of do-gooders felt those poor folks shouldn't be institutionalized against their "will" that way.

So, with great "compassion" they let all those people loose where they became free to live under bridges, in cardboard boxes, at the mercy of whatever predators there may be...or until they commit an outrage great enough to land them in jail.

Mayhaps, the unintended consequences of closing all those state homes is more an affront to society.

I don't think that firearms have nothing to do with it.

A few weeks ago a similar tragedy happened in my country.

In the middle of the night, an elderly man got out of bed, went to the garage, got an axe, came back and hit his wife in the head several times with it.
The couple's son lived with them, woke up and intervened. They rushed the woman to the hospital with severe wounds to the ICU.

The man had been suffering from dementia for some years.
He declared he thought there was a racoon in the bed.

Terrible indeed.
May we all be free from the diseases of the mind. Alzheimer, dementia, psychosis.. Some of the worst things that can happen to a human being.

The people who start to have metal problems don't sprout a sign that proclaims they went over the edge. Many times people living with them don't even see whats wrong till its to late. My wife had a brain tumor and I never realized anything was wrong till she couldn't find her way home.

Plus, just who do you want to make the call that your no longer capable of being a responsible gun owner, your wife, your kids, any cop, you Dr. the mayor? Nobody here ever get a divorce? Anybody have anti gun liberal kids. There are cops who think anyone who has a gun is nuts. I am sure there are no liberal anti gun Drs. What kind of behavior is crazy depends on the person AND the observer.

Plus, just where do you draw the line and just who do you want to draw it? Plenty of people would draw it, at if you want to own a gun your nuts and shouldn't have one.

Your right that guy should not have had a gun. But just who knew and under what authority could they have taken his?????

Truer words were never spoken.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

Do they know your Rottweiler's name?

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Just Say No - To Social Media

Shhhh! It's a secret. But just in case, send lawyers, guns and money...

Nice post. To which I can only add that "dementia" is not mental illness. It's a somewhat archaic medical term, much like senility. So, the treatment for this is not mental health, it's medical care. Mostly, though, it's progressive and non reversible.

If this man isn't capable of rational thought, even if that's only sporadic (so far), then someone should go to court and have a judge declare him mentally incompetent for medical reasons. That would take care of his possession of guns.

Some states are enacting, or trying to, laws that would allow anyone to call the police for any reason and report that a person is a danger to himself or others and should have his (or her) guns taken away. NY and CA already have done this administratively without new laws.

It's bad policy and probably violates the Constitution. That, however delves into prohibited territory, so I'll stop here.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Mostly they were warehoused, not housed. Kept in deplorable conditions, barely treated (if at all), and few ever left once they were committed. As bad as that was, what has followed seems worse. Now people can roam the streets, in most states refuse to take their medications, and there aren't enough beds in the few remaining facilities to treat all of the patients.

The man in the OP would not benefit in any way from being confined in such a facility.

For those interested in the history of mental illness (again that's not what is going on with the man in the OP) and treatment in the US, I highly recommend "My Brother Ron", but Clayton Cramer.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Problem is, he may have come by the gun as a hand-me-down 50 years ago, or bought it FTF decades ago, and until he does something stupid, family might not and for sure the law doesn't know the gun exists. Even sadder, he may have no family to look in on him either.

It's a much more polite and socially acceptable term than what I'd use in the real world...the world away from the Internet.

But I'm trying to be a good boy, hence the use of the word.

Whichever cased the closing of institutionalization (and my opinion is that it was economics), the cost of such institutions has skyrocketed since the 1960s because the cost of labor has skyrocketed, and those are labor intensive places. So we will not see the like of public mental institutions again unless we want to go back to 90% tax brackets, and even then it wouldn't be at the rates we saw back then.

Victims in shooting near Goose Creek say neighbor opened fire after complaining of noisy kids | News | postandcourier.com

I was just telling a story. I don't have documented evidence for everything I told. The point of the whole post is that we don't have decent health care here. If you want me to get affidavits from my friend who's wife is a lunatic, well, you'll just have to take my word for it. I don't expect people to justify everything they say.

Update: Link fixed

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

He's got a wife at home, and a son that lives away and they've noticed him having 'personality swings'. But I'm sure she never expected him to get a gun and shoot people. I just wonder what happens now. I'm sure they'll take this gun from him, though, not matter what. The police can lock it up as 'evidence'.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

A friend of mine's mother was 'unbalanced' and she kept a gun. They had the firing pin removed.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Yep! Don't ever recall hearing or reading that word myself, but right away, I knew what he meant!!! Some words are just that way.

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So long ... Ken

Surely he will be deemed by the court to be unfit to own firearms. That sticks. What I, the police or anybody else can't make that decision, unless his wife has him declared incompetent, then it'll still be a judges decision.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

People like that belong in a hospital. Yeah, asylums have the reputation of being horror houses, for a good reason. But we (the state) got rid of the whole system lock stock and barrel. Having 'mental hospitals' isn't the best answer, but at least it's something short of saying 'Either you can live in society, or you can stay in jail.' Our infamous state mental ward was on 'Bull Street' in Columbia. When somebody said they were going to Bull Street, you knew what they meant.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

...is that they noticed he was having 'spells' of changes in personality where there were none before, but he's never showed a tendency toward violence. This came out of the clear blue sky. Lucky somebody didn't really get killed.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

It was a variety of things, one of which was economics. A perhaps bigger factor was lawsuits starting in the late 1950s by the ACLU. The result, which peaked during the 1970s, was states closing their facilities. What was supposed to happen was that money was supposed to be funneled to "community based" treatment centers that would treat the patients in the "least restrictive setting." What actually happened was... nothing.

As a result, over 60% of the homeless population has some combination of mental health, drug, and criminal histories. There is some treatment for people in prisons, but it's incidental to their incarceration for the crimes they commit.

It's a mess and it's not going to get better soon, if ever.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

MA had about a dozen at the height of the use of Asylums. There are five left. One is for sexually dangerous criminals and is part of a state prison. The other four offer a variety of services, including psychiatric care. There are maybe 300 inpatient beds statewide in that system. There are several privately run hospitals, but they also have limited capability and have more patients needing admission than they have beds for.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

And it takes money and most likely, insurance to be able to afford a private facility. That's something that a lot of mentally ill people don't have.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

List of SC public mental health facilities - Most people have NO clue what the government does. The problem is since the 1960's the liberals have determined mentally ill people have rights to NOT be medicated and not be locked up. This guy has rights UNTIL he proves himself mentally ill or his friends and family get him health. I think you are mistaken HELP and FUNDING is not provided.

Centers and Hospitals / Program Services

If he also has a parrot,I'd bet it's "Jesus".
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

I see you.........and Jesus sees you.


Sic 'em Jesus

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Nobody can declare the man a looney except a judge. Someone can be taken if they present a danger to themselves or somebody else, but only a court can declare a person incompetent, insane, or whatever to hold them for any length of time.

I'm not saying to put him away on my say-so, but I think having shot at four people, two of them children and wounded two adults says something about his mental state.

I don't have anything against the guy. I've watched people decline and become entirely different people, but they weren't violent. Mostly they just wander away until somebody finds them and brings them back.

My next door neighbor always walked a couple of miles to the corner gas station. I'd see her trucking down the road and tell their family, "She's headed toward the station again." The biggest danger is that she would get run over walking down a frontage road without a sidewalk and crossing a very congested intersection.

And I was wrong, they do have residential care for some people, but most of those facilities are 'mental health centers' that have a boatload of counselors and specialists to do diagnostics and all kinds of work but they aren't residential. I've been to them several times with other people.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I was listening to a program one day and they were talking about old age homes and how to keep people from wondering off. One places solution: put a fake bus stop in front of the place. Whenever one of the patents ran away or wondered off, they could be found waiting for a bus that never came out front.

Now that's just cruel!

The best we can do nowadays is to send people back home with a bunch of prescriptions and "hope" they take them. I was a firefighter/emt for 31 years and if I had a dollar for every call that I went on that stated someone was "off their meds" I'd be a rich man.

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Get off my lawn!

They have GPS trackers, door alarms, bed alarms, and other technology to keep people from wandering off. Still, it happens now and again.

We used to be able to just return them (if we knew where they belonged), but now they all have to go to the hospital for the magical "evaluation."

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Not at all. The elderly never realize it's a trick, and they can be safely found before they get hurt. Now, it may be sad that they fall for the trick, but that's a symptom of their condition.

The family gets a visit from Social Services. I keep a tight rein on my dogs, but sometimes, they get out.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I was referring to facilities. Which have a duty to prevent their patients from wandering off. The likely get a visit from whoever licenses them.

Private residence? Doubt it. At least in MA, the Department of Elder Affairs doesn't have that authority. Social Services only has jurisdiction if kids are involved.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

As Gary said, the facilities that contributed to the deinstitutionalization movement were just about medieval in their conditions. Throw in a side of order of "cheap" and we get a feces fest in which we have a lot of folks out on the street who can't function there and no place for them. The largest single source of mental health treatment in the US is correctional facilities. If I told you what I really think of this, the Gorilla would ban me in a heartbeat, even though you couldn't read it for the *s.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no state or local system in this country that doesn't suck. Those of us who have had to try to address this kind of stuff in the street, courtroom, or jail/prison settings have been screeching like harpies for years, but lawmakers do not listen to anyone. All they want on behalf of their constituents is to have these folks out of sight. Of course a large number of the mentally ill are not really dangerous, but just "weird", and so many weaklings infest our society that there is this push to get them all locked up. It's a horrid mix.

We had a defendant with Alzheimers do something similar a few years ago - just beat the hell out of some poor woman for no reason at all. Trying to find anything for him was the pits. BTW, the guy mentioned in the original note cannot possess a firearm for the foreseeable future - having been charged, he is a prohibited person under federal law. Of course, the odds of the feds prosecuting such a case are about the same as me getting a gymnastics scholarship, but ...

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NHI, 10-8.

have you notified the proper authorities?
even if it is only a hunch
if a tragedy happens and you neglected to get involved, knowing what you know, you are going to feel guilty AF...

It requires someone taking action by petitioning a Court to remove his rights. I've had to do that and its no fun at all, but a necessary chore.

As for MH facilities - thank the know-it-all advocates that worked diligently in the 1980s and 1990s to have all the state facilities closed down because of abuse. Yes, it's better for severely mentally ill patients to die of exposure on the street or go around attacking people than to have them in a state-run facility.

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Who watches the watchers?

What closed them down was lack of money, not mental health advocates. It's cheaper to leave them on the streets and in jails than in mental hospitals. So, we need to suck it up and remember that the deaths caused by people off their meds are a price of freedom we enjoy.