Mental health laws probably won’t help stop mass shootings

The ambitious package of gun control laws passed this week by New York state include measures requiring mental health professionals to report any potentially violent patients, in the hopes of preventing further shootings like the recent school massacre in Newtown, Conn. But psychologists and psychiatrists say such efforts are unlikely to succeed, mainly because accurately gauging potentially violent behavior is difficult, even by trained professionals. What would be more helpful, they say, is better access to mental health care itself.