[snarfy]

> what's left when everything is already illegal?

When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

There are plenty of other ways to address this that are not legislative. A legislative approach would only be counter productive. When people are breaking the laws, making more laws doesn't help.

We would probably get much better reduction in these types of events if we spent the same resources on supporting mental health issues than wire tapping the internet.

[philipov]

Why would they want to solve the mental health issues when they provide so many good excuses for wire tapping the internet?

EDIT: People don't understand politics for the same reason they don't understand Facebook. If you're not the big lobby consultant getting these people elected, you are the product.

[ad_hominem]

I don't think better mental health support would have any effect on Islamic terror attacks. These religious zealots are not mentally ill in the traditional sense.

[DanBC]

People with mental illness are not violent. Knowing the mental health status of someone gives you very little predictive power about whether they pose a risk of violence or not - even if we restrict ourselves to severe illness such as psychosis.

Even if you were to find that every single terrorist has a mental illness (and we know that most of the killers in the UK didn't) it still gives you no useful information.

Violence is prevalent. Mental illness is prevalent. There's obviously going to be some overlap. It's a coincidence, not a cause.