Also, looks like I messed up by posting to wrong tab / article. Apologies.

Just stopped by briefly to see any responses. I can easily cite evidence in support of my claims and will do so tommorrow. It being father’s day, I have other priorities.

The de-institutionalization push also came with a promise to replace larger institutions with more halfway houses and smaller venues. A kinder, gentler mental health system. For the most part, that fell by the wayside.

This is mostly OT from the this thread, but what you are describing as your friend’s “solution” sounds like what we used to have – state-run mental hospitals where many people were warehoused without a lot of due process. This was attacked from both the left and right for different reasons and has been greatly diminished. But it did cover up a lot of societal problems. A discussion for another thread, I think.

See this and also this.

That is correct. In the late great USSR gun ownership was prohibited but they had an overall murder rate twice the US rate. Some of the republics had murder rates like Chicago.

We’ve already seen how the bureaucrats that are only suppose to be concerned with collecting taxes have been used to stifle political dissent in the USA; do we really want to see doctors and other healthcare professionals do the same?

Do we want to see the US healthcare system (Obamacare aside for a minute) become a political arm of the US government?

Just how concerned will your doctors be about your health if they are also looking over their shoulder to see if they should be doing more than just treating you illness?