Public Safety Commission's Take On Gun Control

     On Tuesday, February 5, 2013 Austin YNN published a news story titled: Public Safety Commission Tackles Gun Control. The article talks about Austin's City Hall getting in on the gun control debate. On Monday, February 4th, the Public Safety Commission came up with various gun control recommendations which they presented to the Austin City Council. The article mentioned a few of these recommendations, but did not go into detail as to the extent of the measures.
     A major issue with the proposals, which the story does point out is the fact that "cities and counties are severely limited by state law as to what they can do." Public Safety Commission Chairman Michael Lauderdale realizes they are dealing with a subject that is much larger than county, city or state. He mentions, in fact, that they are about to challenge and possibly infringe upon a right, "that is guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the Constitution."
     The article also mentions that the Public Safety Commission brought in some medical experts for the mental health aspect of the debate. The article states that the Safety Commission wanted the medical experts to assess the mental health climate of the community. The story closes by pointing out that, "no recommendation was made to council concerning the city's mental health programs."
     Why is this article worth reading? That is for each individual reader to decide. I would like to just point out two issues/questions I have.
     First, why did the Public Safety Commission not give any recommendations to the City Council on how to address the mental health aspect, with regard to public safety? I think this would be the most important part of the equation being that the last three and most deadly mass shooting were commited by mentally unstable people.
     Two, why did the Public Safety Commission bring in Dr. Chris Ziebell who is an emergency medicine physician? With all due respect to Dr. Ziebell, if I wanted to know what the mental health pulse of the community felt like, I would speak to a psychologist or psychiatrist, not an ER doctor.