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Recent Shooting in College Station Puts Renewed Spotlight on Gun Purchase Screenings & Mental Health

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle)
Revelations that a College Station man at the center of Monday’s shootout bought his guns legally but was mentally ill has mental health professionals and law enforcement officials renewing their call for more resources to treat people before they become a danger to themselves or others.

One of the loudest voices calling for better funding is Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, who runs the largest mental health facility in Texas – the Harris County Jail, where a quarter of the population requires psychotropic medications.

Those who deal with the mentally ill work to keep them from deteriorating to a point where they would cause a catastrophe, Garcia said. “If not for the condition, these people would not pick up a firearm; they wouldn’t be thinking about taking their own lives,” he said.

Thomas Alton Caffall III, 35, on Monday fatally shot two people after a constable came to his door with an eviction notice. Caffall was killed by police in the ensuing gunfight. He passed the background check to legally buy at least two guns, according to the gun store he bought from. In the wake of the shooting, family members have said Caffall was suffering from mental illness.

The Houston Police Department responds to more than 25,000 mental health calls a year, said HPD Lt. Michael Lee, about of them 100 involving someone with a gun in a “full-blown mental health crisis. The vast majority of what we see are suicidal people,” Lee said. “Something like what happened (at College Station) is very, very rare, thank God.”
(Read the rest of the story at the Houston Chronicle)

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