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After nearly two decades of expanding legal access to firearms, a succession of horrific shootings like Mr. Houser’s have refocused attention on gun control. Since the 2012 massacre of 26 elementary school children and teachers in Newtown, Conn., gun control advocates have scored some significant victories in state legislatures. Nationwide, several polls suggest that public opinion has shifted markedly in favor of stricter gun laws. And for the first time since Al Gore called for tighter firearm restrictions in his losing 2000 campaign, gun control is a top-level issue in the presidential contest, as well as in two close Senate races and four state ballot initiatives. (LaFraniere and Palmer, 10/21)

In particular, police approaches to mental illness exist along an urban-rural divide within the state. Large and midsize cities in Kansas have access to greater resources, while law enforcement in small towns and rural areas must grapple with limited resources and simple geography: Vast expanses of land often separate police from mental health professionals. But police, especially in the eastern part of the state, also face acute challenges stemming from ongoing problems at the state’s psychiatric hospitals. With some individuals waiting days to be admitted to Osawatomie State Hospital, officers have grown increasingly frustrated. (Shorman, 10/24)

Legislators in Washington state broke new ground in 2015 when they passed a bill requiring all law enforcement officers to be trained for encounters with people in mental health crises. ... Law enforcement experts nationwide hail the mental health training as useful, given how frequently officers deal with people in crisis since states began moving away from institutionalizations in the 1960s. But nearly every state, including Kansas, leaves the decision of whether to require the training up to local jurisdictions.Local law enforcement agencies were reluctant to give up that authority in Washington, too, but the Ostlings and their partners showed how to make the mandate palatable. (Marso, 10/24)

One of eight deputies with the sheriff's office Crisis Intervention Team, Gary] Kidder responds to calls about "consumers," as police say, with symptoms of mental illness. Sometimes, this means a person is threatening suicide, or freaking out on some illicit drugs, or trying to escape a psychiatric facility. Kidder and his peers are specially trained to de-escalate these situations as best they can. They take the time needed to proceed without force and estimate that they transport consumers to a hospital in roughly every other case. (Foxhall, 10/22)