that someone thinks would make a difference at this point. I don't think anything realistic exists.

Here is an idea -- tracking guns far more closely linked with each individual with no kind of legal loophole for sales and if a person is "flagged" with mental health issues, that gun(s) will be proactively confiscated. This will never, ever happen in this country and for a variety of reasons, although we could absolutely have a system of much tighter government tracking of individual gun ownership if we so chose and rules about what can be owned at all (a la Australia). But this won't happen here. In fact, really pushing at this point would probably put the country at high risk for some kind of escalated civil violence --- how ironic is that notion?

The mental health discussion is a complete deflection at this point. Either we do something about the number and types of guns out there with a serious new structure of tracking and rules ----- or we drop the silly debates and gun advocates just say out loud that events like Maine are an acceptable cost for their view of freedom.