“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” according to the National Riffle Association in the US.

‘She establishes that the gunman has not been taking his psychiatric medication because his Medicaid cover has run out’

So when a man armed with an AK47 and 500 rounds of ammunition enters a primary school, takes the school librarian hostage and says he has nothing to lose, it can only end one way.

Not this time. The hostage acts as a negotiator between police marksmen and the gunman.

Issues of access

She establishes that the gunman has not been taking his psychiatric medication because his Medicaid cover has run out. She tells him abut how she felt when her husband left her and the children. How she too felt she had nothing to lose and how with the help of friends she got through it. She says, “We are not going to hate you”; that we all go through some really bad times and that he is going to be OK. She persuades him to give up his weapon, lie on the floor and give himself up.

This is in the US, so there are issues about access to guns, healthcare for the poor, inadequate provision of mental health services and the use of prisons as the main accommodation for those experiencing mental health problems.

So the choice is to shoot them and imprison them or support them and treat them.

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