Mental illness may be at play, but the systematic problem is that mental healthcare is difficult and expensive - even with insurance - and that's if they even take insurance.

Without a combination of Obama care and a mother who had the means to not only try to get me help, but continued over the course of my life to try to help ..

I'm bipolar. It took a long time (27 years of age) and lots of money to get to being an otherwise fairly normal functional person.

Mental health needs to be a priority, it needs to be socialized (like all medical care) so people don't have to pick between the rent (always rising) and seeing a doctor.

Mental health also carries a stigma still, which is why I'm open about mental health and my struggles. Because when I'm on my meds, on your average day, I'm just your average civillian. Without meds I don't sleep for days, get into a manic paranoid spiral, then crash into a depression... Before I found the right meds, that depression lasted two years and getting out of bed was a major victory.

Not violent but certainly not functional. Proper screening and checkups that don't make you pick between meals and mental health would go a long way to spotting the folks with violent impulses. Get them on some meds,some talk therapy, work through it.

Not impale a stranger through the head with a makeshift spear.