Mental Health

Your article about the dangerous conditions at Spring Grove Hospital was an accurate description of what has been happening in our public psychiatric hospitals ("At mental facility, staffers besieged," March 3). I was a staff psychiatrist at Spring Grove Hospital for 25 years until June 2013, when the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene decided to close the two assisted living units on the hospital grounds. This was an unfortunate decision since those units served as chronic care for many patients who could not get community placements.

Within a week of arriving on campus this semester, University of Maryland junior Grace Freund felt the familiar symptoms of a depression creeping up - ones she knew to address quickly, lest they slip from her control. The 21-year-old psychology major called the counseling center on the College Park campus soon after to set up an appointment. However, she said, her request was rebuffed. "They said, 'Call back next week. We can't even schedule an intake appointment today,'" said Freund, a graduate of Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City.

The Maryland Senate today passed the most significant gun control measure in Maryland in at least a generation, one that not only responds to the threat of a Newtown-style mass shooting but also to the daily violence that plagues Baltimore and other Maryland communities. The House of Delegates is to hold its first hearing on Gov. Martin O'Malley's legislation tomorrow, and it should quickly follow the Senate's lead. The key components of the legislation are a ban on the sale of assault weapons and ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds; new restrictions to prevent those suffering from a mental illness that makes them a threat to themselves or others from obtaining handguns; and a new licensing system for handgun purchasers.

The centerpiece of Gov. Martin O'Malley's gun control bill survived the Maryland Senate intact Wednesday, though opponents vowed to keep fighting the proposal to give the state some of the nation's strictest gun laws. A new licensing provision at the heart of O'Malley's bill would require handgun buyers to give their fingerprints to the state police and to complete a training course. The law also would ban the sale of assault weapons and further limit access to guns by people with some mental illnesses.

Regarding your editorial on President Obama's State of the Union plea for Congress to act on gun control, Marylander's deserve much more than a vote, they deserve true representation ("We deserve a vote," Feb. 17). The editorial highlighted the president's call for the voices of the victims of gun violence be heard, and it denounced the NRA, Republicans and certain Democrats for opposing legislation that would ban military-style assault rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines.

A 25-year-old man arrested for trespassing in North County High School this month - and who was found to have a number of legal, high-powered weapons in his home - has been ordered held without bond. Justin Matthew Beaumont, of Glen Burnie, was held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center after a bond review hearing Wednesday, according to Kristin Fleckenstein, spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office. Beaumont was arrested at North County High School on Feb. 4, according to police accounts.

Bowing to pressure from some fellow Democrats in the legislature, Gov. Martin O'Malley has signaled a willingness to compromise on at least one element in the package of new gun restrictions he proposed in the aftermath of last year's school shooting in Newtown, Conn. And in a surprise, given the massive lobbying effort against his bill, the change actually makes it better. Aides now say the governor will support a provision to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people that is even tougher than one presently on the books.

After the unfortunate murder suicide at the University of Maryland College Park by a graduate student who used a handgun to commit his crimes, The Sun wrote an editorial urging college campuses to educate their students about the signs of mental illness in their fellow students ("Campus nightmare," Feb. 14). In fact, you wanted this type of education to be a part of college orientation programs. Well intentioned though this editorial was, it didn't offer one sure and certain method to prevent the kind of disaster that occurred at College Park.

Though much remained unknown about the suspect in the shootings near the University of Maryland's College Park campus, a picture emerged Tuesday of a quiet, studious young man who had completed several high-profile summer internships with NASA. Dayvon M. Green, 23, a graduate engineering student, had studied industrial and systems engineering at Morgan State University. He was a 2010 and 2011 summer intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, close to the College Park campus, according to NASA.

In December, a young man in Newtown, Conn., killed 20 small children and seven adults, including his mother, and then committed suicide. This tragic massacre has prompted legislators to reexamine firearms laws and quickly propose legislation that might prevent future mass murders. Much of it focuses on people who have sought mental health care. The Maryland General Assembly is considering legislation that requires mental health clinicians to report patients who are potentially dangerous for the purpose of restricting their access to guns.