Utah Officials Shaping National Agenda on Dealing with Violence

None by KCPW

Leavitt Says All Hot-Button Issues Are On the Table

(KCPW News) The Trolley Square shooting thrust Utah into a small brotherhood of states including Texas, Tennessee, Colorado and Virginia. All have experienced violent tragedies. Now all are being asked to help U.S. officials create a new national agenda for dealing with - and preventing - future tragedies:

"Whenever one of these events occurs, it inflames a lot of conflicts that have occured in the past," says Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. "It also causes us to re-weigh value decisions that we've already made."

Secretary Leavitt met with about 30 law enforcement, education and mental health professionals in Utah today. The Trolley Square shooting played prominently in discussions, and Leavitt says the point was to raise questions, not find answers. For example, should a person's mental health be taken into consideration when issuing a gun permit? Are people with mental illness being cared for in society now that America has moved away from institutionalization?

Leavitt says all of the hot-button topics are on the table.

"Inevitably we'll have conversation about guns," says Leavitt. "We have video games and the media and its impact. Inevitably we'll hear conversations about mental health and available of mental health. And are we getting that right? How are we doing in protecting people's privacy and yet having the community have the information they need?"

Leavitt says gun laws will figure prominently in the new national agenda, but adds it's important to not overreact to recent violence because the U.S. has quote "established an equilibrium on many of these issues after long years of debate."

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