'WSJ' Blames Obama and Feds for Ft. Hood Shootings

They do it cleverly and between the lines, it's true.  But in an editorial today, they pinpoint as the two reasons (with no mention of the easy purchase of the weapon again in this case or any other factors):

And as military officials seek lessons from the tragedy to try to prevent similar events in the future, they should expect no help from the the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as Samhsa. According to a Journal editorial this week, this arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "uses its $3.6 billion annual budget to undermine treatment for severe mental disorders."

Samhsa bureaucrats spend much of their time and taxpayers' money opposing efforts by doctors to promote medical intervention in such serious cases. Among the reforms sought by health professionals—and impeded by the bureaucracy—are "'need for treatment' standards in civil-commitment laws, or assisted-outpatient laws so courts can require the mentally ill to receive treatment to avoid hospitalization."

Military officials might also wish to consider the work of E. Fuller Torrey, who last year described in our pages how the federal government spends far too much time and money treating "the worried well," rather than the truly ill—and the truly dangerous.

Torrey, in fact, is a well-known advocate of returning to the days of  institutionalizing the mentally ill against their will.  Here's a piece at Scientific American criticizing a recent "60 Minutes" segment after the Naval Yard massacre that featured Torrey.   Of course, it's absurd that the shooter would have been locked away before the attack.  Latest reports reveal that he had clean record, a psychiatrist had indeed seen him in past month and found no threat of violence and simply prescribed a sleep aid.

 My piece at The Nation finds others blaming the media--or not enough people armed with guns.