Police hunted Wednesday for a man who entered a psychologist's office with a bag of knives and a meat cleaver, hacking her to death so savagely that blood spattered the walls and floor and the entire room was torn apart...
"Safety is always a concern," Brennan said. She added that therapists are thoroughly trained in how to assess a patient's potential for violence, and would normally see patients in a private setting only if they had determined that the safety risk was low.
And, of course, the American Psychological Association
(1) Supports nationwide licensing of firearm ownership based on attainment of legal voting age; clearance following a criminal record background check; and demonstrated skill in firearm knowledge, use, and safety;Great job that doorman and those cameras, did, huh? As for the contention of being "thoroughly trained," it just shows the danger of expecting expertise in all areas just because someone has a doctorate. You're not trained to deal with violent people unless you're also prepared and equipped to stop them.
(2) Encourages federal, state, and local governments to increase specific legal, regulatory, and enforcement efforts to reduce widespread, easy, and unsupervised access to firearms by children and youth;
(3) Supports the development, implementation, and evaluation of school-based programs to educate children and youth regarding the prevention of firearm violence and the reduction of both unintentional and intentional death and injury caused by firearms.
I doubt we'd go to Sharon Brennan if our car was stalling, or our TV on the fritz. In my experience, someone who truly is "thoroughly trained" in personal combat techniques is generally the first to admit they don't know it all. But it's this mentality, perpetuated by idiotic "Authorized Journalists" who presume to write with authority on matters they have the understanding of a child about, that gets the naive believing an evening self defense class at the Y will be all they need.
[Via Joe FM]