According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Mental illness is like any other disease; the earlier it is identified and treated, the better the health outcomes.” Model inpatient youth psychiatric care is provided at some U.S. hospitals but not in Santa Clara County. No hospital in our county will admit a youth who is having a mental health crisis. (There is a stand alone facility in the south County, San Jose Behavioral Health, which treats teens 14 and older.) The only options for youth and families who actively seek help are in counties as far away as Sacramento which is not feasible for many families so their child’s illness worsens. If health care included mental health care, we would have a much healthier community.

A few scattered thoughts: the Board should consider which policy changes to support (or avoid). Most everyone agrees the country needs better regulation of gun and ammo sales and possesion. Gun shows where guns are actually handed out without background checks should never be allowed. It reminds me of an old Chevy Chase movie where he was an international weapons salesman. Thank goodness the USA does not allow weapon sales to foreign regimes to kill innocent civilians. We don't export weapons do we? Imagine if you lived abroad and your whole family had been slaughtered with American-supplied weapons. You might develop your own definitions of a "terrorist" and "freedom fighter." Not all guns are "arms" that one (adult, non-convict) has the "right to bear." But remember this old saying I modify slightly: when guns are outlawed, only outlaws (and government agents) will (lawfully) have guns. There are already more guns than residents in the USA. Bad guys will always be able to steal or otherwise get them. And guns are used to kill across the country - rarely in mass shootings. And private gun possession deters some crimes. And here is another thought: Are there devices other than guns that can neutralize a gunman? I remember the report of a sniper in a Texas tower and talk of sound weapons. Good luck Supervisors. Invite President Trump's son-in-law (Jared Kushner) to the summit. He should be available - having lost his temporary top-secret security clearance. Which bring me to my last point: if the Russians are going to run the USA through Trump, we will all need guns.

John, the US is the largest exporter of arms!

Big mistake to call it gun violence AND mental health.

Makes as much sense as linking mental health to people who run red lights, cheat on their taxes, shoplift, jaywalk, don’t put the toilet seat down, and on and on.

While it is true that people with mental illness are far more likely to be the victim of an attack, that is just a distraction statistic and irrelevant.
It is also true that pretty close to 100% of "mass shooters" have a well documented history of certain types of mental illness. Including that teacher who just locked himself alone in his classroom and fired one shot harming nobody. His history should never have allowed him to be a teacher.

As for school shooters, virtually all of them turned out to have a history of being prescribed some pretty powerful mind-altering drugs, like SSRIs among others and were either currently on those drug or had recently stopped taking them. Prior to the advent of prescribing such drugs to teenage boys, we had no mass school shooting by teen boys.

The other trait common among mass shooters is the need for recognition and the fame they all craved and knew they could acquire from the willing news media by obtaining a gun and killing a bunch of people. Extra fame is granted to those who choose an AR-15. They all want to get their names on TV and the internet millions of times and for decades to come. The mass media always gleefully anoints such killers with fame and then puts the blame on the 110 million law-abiding gun-owners instead.

Yes, we do need to do a better job of convincing women to leave abusive relationship early and to seek protection from more than a piece of paper (restraining orders are mostly useless against former domestic abusers). Women need to escape violent relationships before the violence escalates to murder, regardless of the weapon used. We need to educate women on how to identify abusive men by their pre-violence behavior.

FYI, knives are far more common weapons in domestic abuse situations and fists are more common still.

And, all types of rifle and shotguns combined (yes, including those evil "assault weapons") account for only about 250 deaths per year (mostly suicides), while knives cause about 1600 deaths per year (about 20% suicides) and hand/feet account for nearly 1000 deaths per year (none of which are suicides).

Not that anyone cares about the facts.

Wow, just more proof of the true motivation and cause of mass shootings!
The desire for fame which the media loves to supply to mass shooters!
And look, the judge lets them off with a slap on the wrist and the record of their crimes will be erased!

"Three teens who threatened to “kill everyone” at their high school in Michigan in a Columbine-inspired school shooting will dodge prison and spend five years on house arrest and probation, a judge ruled."

"In a harrowing video played by prosecutors in court in May, Rice and Candela, while sitting in a darkened basement, calmly detailed their plan to target their classmates.

“Lapeer High School — we’re gonna put it on the f–king map,” Rice said, according to the video obtained by MLive.com through a Freedom of Information Act request.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be known by many people,” Candela replied.

“You know what we’re gonna do?” Rice continued. “Kill everyone.”

“Or at least most of them,” Candela said, later adding: “Yeah, they’re gonna pay for all the bulls—.”

Saying the attack would be “God-like,” the teens laughed throughout the video and promised to target classmates with a “sawed-off double-barrel shotgun” and other weapons.

“As long as it kills,” Candela said.

Rice said the teens were followers of Columbine High School shooters..."

Not that anyone cares about facts.

@Liberal Guns in Rex Manor, I 100% agree! My first thought with the Florida shooting was I don't want to see his face, I don't want to know his name, and within about one day it was inescapable. His name and photo are everywhere.

There's a movement or a group called No Notoriety. You can find it on Facebook. I wish the media would even consider this but that's probably not going to happen.

We all know that these mass shootings are not due to any one single factor, it's a combination of likely mental problems, social problems, easy access to assault rifles, who knows what else, and notoriety I agree is definitely a factor. Do these kids want to go out in a blaze of glory, like they're in a movie or something? We may never know until CONGRESS lifts the BAN on government (Centers for Disease Control) research on GUN-RELATED VIOLENCE.

@Reader
Thanks, but, please do a bit more "reading"...
You have become a media victim in more ways than you think.
Other than the media hype, there is nothing special about AR-15s.

"I don't want to know his name, and within about one day it was inescapable...No Notoriety. "

I was not aware that any such groups existed, thanks for letting me know.

"I wish the media would even consider this but that's probably not going to happen."

The more hysteria and emotion the media and politicians can drum up, and the more misinformation they can feed the public, the more POWER the media and politicians can obtain and exploit with impunity. They tell us:
You see that tragedy over there, well, just give ME MORE POWER and I will protect you from that.

Which is why anything that in fact would save lives is always scorned in favor of some idiotic laws that wont be enforced and cannot save lives.

"easy access to assault rifles,"

That term "assault rifles" means a "machine-gun", a fully-automatic firearm that continues to fire as long as you hold down the trigger. Almost all of these are owned by entertainment companies who use them to make movies glorifying random shootings.

An AR-15 is NOT a machine-gun. The AR-15 is a very LOW-POWER fairly ordinary semi-auto (one shot per trigger pull) rifle lawfully and safely owned by millions of Americans. Probably 15 million AR-15 style rifles in private hands in the USA.

"We may never know until CONGRESS lifts the BAN on government (Centers for Disease Control) research on GUN-RELATED VIOLENCE."

You should really READ the law you're talking about. The law passed says the CDC may NOT spend public money creating POLITICAL OPINIONS. The law was passed in direct reaction to the CDC producing political opinion pieces under the guise of scientific research.

But who cares about facts?