Airport gunman should have received help for mental illness

The Palm Beach Post article, “Sheriff decries access of mentally ill to guns” (Monday) describes a young man, Esteban Santiago, who spent nine years in the military, received 11 medals and at one time, was deployed to Iraq. After nine years, he was discharged for “unsatisfactory performance.” In November, he was apparently so mentally ill he walked into an FBI office rambling about implanted chips in his body, hearing voices and being forced to watch ISIS videos.

It is quite evident that after nine years, something changed his mental stability. Why didn’t the Veterans Administration treat him?

We see articles all the time that describe post-traumatic stress disorder, but what about the stress that members of our law enforcement and military community are exposed to? What about the everyday citizen who is pushed to the breaking point? These people deserve our utmost attention so that we can help before they short-circuit and harm someone else or themselves.

Kudos to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who said: “This isn’t about (the Second Amendment), we need to say enough is enough. We have a society to protect.” Since Charles Whitman shot 49 people at the University of Texas on Aug. 1, 1966, mental illness has been described as the primary factor behind more than 80 percent of mass shootings in this country. Now, 50 years later, this has come up again. During the past eight years, specifically, President Barack Obama has decried mental illness as the primary source of these shootings, but then cried for bans on assault weapons and gun control.

“Well, enough is enough.” If the billions of dollars that were spent on pro-gun and anti-gun political and legal wrangling over the past 50 years had been spent on treating mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, enforcing equal rights laws and fighting drug trafficking cartels, common sense would dictate that we would be in a much better space today.

What I don’t understand is why Santiago, a military veteran, did not receive the medical treatment that he needed, let alone retain a firearm as Sheriff Israel questions? If Santiago exhibited the psychotic behavior The Post article described, why wasn’t he in a treatment facility? Will all of the questions be answered? I think not.

But one thing is for sure. The lives of many more people have been changed and altered forever because of another gunman, no matter what his condition.