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Wed Apr 18 15:43:20 BST 2007

"Until the American People modify this article there is nothing as 
foriners we can comment. It is their Constitution and is their Right v& duty 
to follow their Constitution. Let it be."

Manuel,
I would direct you to a post I just wrote.  There is no need to change the Constitution - all we need to do is to write laws that honor that Constitution's premise - the MILITIA must be well armed.  The only militia we need in these here United States is a police force and an army!
It appears that the gun-toting folk want to forget that the Constitution was ratified a couple of hundred years ago, when we were still at war.  The last time we were at war here in the U.S. was in the late 1860's, as I recall......
Ron

>>> "MSD" <listasmsd at gmail.com> 4/17/2007 10:31 PM >>>
United States Bill of Rights
"ARTICLE THE FOURTH
[Amendment II]
    "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free 
state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be 
infringed"

    Until the American People modify this article there is nothing as 
foriners we can comment. It is their Constitution and is their Right v& duty 
to follow their Constitution. Let it be.

     Regards
    Manuel Sotelo

    Dear Ken

    Sorry but I did try to restrain myself from commenting.

    While I agree that there is  need for more mental health facilities
    worldwide, I doubt if it would have helped the disturbed young man in
    Virginia ( according to reports here he was a loner and wrote worrying 
plays
    in creative writing classes about killing fellow students and a 
professor).

    Anyway, the point is that he was able to purchase 2 semi-automatic hand 
guns
    and kill 32 young people whatever the state of his mind.

    USA has 4% of the world's population and 50% of the firearms- surely 
injury
    prevention measures ( and common sense)  should be applied as in any 
other
    trauma situation.

    As I said previously when we had a similar incident here in Australia 
with
    35 killed in Tasmania over 10 years ago, our Prime Minister to his 
credit
    changed the gun laws overnight with the cooperation of our States making 
it
    much more difficult to buy guns and virtually impossible to buy an 
handgun
    as a private citizen.

    If this group can't change the culture and the constitution in your 
country,
    who can?

    Regards
    Tony Joseph
    Sydney

    On 18/4/07 6:48 AM, "KMATTOX at aol.com" <KMATTOX at aol.com> wrote:

    > Although I should use my allocated bandwidth time to talk about trauma 
and
    > to compliment those who have done a good job in Virginia's trauma 
response, I
    > want to talk about a totally different subject which has consumed 
increasingly
    >  more and more of my administrative time.
    >
    > The subject is Mental & Behavoral Health.
    >
    > Since the closure of state mental health and psychiatric hospitals, 
there
    > has been an increasing effort to push the responsibility for 
identification
    > and
    > treatment more to the local level.  That is perhaps as it should be, 
but
    > funding has been sparse to negligible.   Hardly a family, and many of 
our
    > colleagues are affected by depression, and other mental health 
diagnoses.
    > Treatment is sporadic and expensive.
    >
    > Add a mental health problem as a co morbid factor to diabetes, heart 
attack,
    > pneumonia, trauma, etc, and we have a really big  problem.
    >
    > Houston is the 4th largest city in the US.   It has a fast growth 
rate.
    > In 2000, 3000 inpatient psychiatry beds  existed.   In 2007 there are 
700,
    > despite an almost doubling of the  population in those 7 years.   One 
public
    > psychiatric hospital (HCPC)  has more than 300 built beds, but less 
than 90
    > are
    > staffed and there are no iv  fluids, no syringes, no IM medications in 
this
    > hospital.  ANY , ANY co  morbid condition results in an attempted 
transfer out
    > instantaneously to BTGH  were there is tight overcrowding of mental 
health
    > conditions.   Up to  37% of the admissions to medicine and surgery, 
including
    > trauma,
    > have a mental  health component.
    >
    > We have 20 in hospital mental health beds, 12 Emergency Center closed 
beds,
    > and up to 12 close observation sites in the emergency center proper. 
We
    > have at any time more than 20-40 inpatients on the surgery or medical 
wards
    > who
    > have both medical and mental health problems, often the mental health
    > problems are severe.      If we tripled the number of  in-hospital 
mental
    > health
    > beds, they would be filled in 12  hours.
    >
    > Now back to the subject that prompted this post.   I suspect  that 
much of
    > the violence, wild use of firearms, and other human/social  outbursts 
may have
    > a
    > mental health overtone, an untreated or undertreated  condition.
    >
    > Finally:
    >
    > IF THE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN HOUSTON, IN TEXAS, IN THE UNITED STATES 
IS
    > NOT ADDRESSED SYSTEMATICALLY, MORE HUMAN OUTBURSTS ARE GOING TO 
HAPPEN.   IN
    > MY
    > VIEW WHAT WE ARE SEEING IN VIOLENCE IN OUR SOCIETY HAS  AS ONE ROOT 
CAUSE,
    > OUR BROKEN MENTAL HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE.
    >
    > Kenneth L. Mattox, MD
    > Houston
    >
    >
    >
    > ************************************** See what's free at 
http://www.aol.com.
    > --
    > trauma-list : TRAUMA.ORG
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