Your thoughts about the police in the Uvalde tragedy were correct in the first instance. Not enough facts to judge, yet. I do know as a parent I tried and prepare my kid (now 30) that anytime someone comes at you with a loaded gun with apparent malice, if you can't run, attack. Throw anything that is not nailed down at him because most of us who are not ex military can shoot but get real shook when books and chairs and fire extinguishers come flying at us.
Mental health is a huge underdiscussed issue in our country. I retired from hospital administration in a very well to do suburb of Seattle a few years ago. Despite a much higher than average level of quality health insurance and just lots of money in the community compared to the national average, the resources were not nearly adequate to address the need for behavioral health support. Whether it was in schools, the hospital or the broader community there wasn't even 25% of the infrastructure (behavioral health inpatient facilities especially pediatric) or human resources (psychiatrists, psychologists and BH trained nurses and social workers). The police and ER staff end up being the front line in dealing with mental health events, usually to the detriment of all involved. In our medium sized hospital (again a well to do suburb here, not inner city) we averaged one violent physical attack on a front line provider every day. Then there were the much more frequent threats and verbal abuse. Not all was tied to pure BH issues, alcohol and drugs were almost always major contributors. But the end result was rarely adequate or long term treatment, it was band aids, short term fixes and basically, kicking the can down the road.
If you are in a smaller or rural community like Uvalde, even assuming there is a timely mental health diagnosis, I doubt there are many resources that will fix the problem long term. And, I am not sure that just because someone chooses to harm another individual, that implies an underlying mental health condition beyond malice or hatred or political motivation. Mental health should not be every politicians' or perpetrator's excuse in these situations. Damn Gov. Abbott for cuttings $$$ millions from state mental health programs and then trying to excuse the state's role or diminish the tragedy of this event by saying "oh, but he had a mental health issue".
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