If it was easy, everybody could do it

Remember after 9-11 when we began to find out all the bits and pieces of information that we had that should have made us aware that an attack was imminent?  It was only after we had the 9-11 hearings that we connected all the dots.  Of course we did.  Monday morning quarterbacking is always so easy.  Truth is, we are a REACTIONARY society.  Something happens, we react to it.  Seldom can we predict the who / what / when / where of a future event.

What we learned is that our intelligence gatherers were "siloed", meaning each had considerable information, but they couldn't share it with anyone outside their own cylindrical silo.  The FBI couldn't share with the CIA because the CIA was forbidden from investigating Americans, and the CIA couldn't talk to the FBI because the FBI could only do internal investigations.  And Customs had their rules, as did ATF, and the FAA, etc.  The debrief determined that we needed a central clearinghouse where a small group could see ALL the info collected by ALL the intelligence gatherers and hopefully connect the dots the next time before the dots exploded.

I think that's where we are now concerning gun violence in America.  Local police were called out to the Florida school shooter's house many, many times, but this info never made it to the FBI.  Likewise the shooter's mental health was reviewed and it was determined that he was depressed, but not dangerous.  Tips to the FBI in one state were never transmitted to the FBI in Florida, nor to the local police there.  None of this was passed on to the NICS database (the firearms background check system that OK's gun purchasers).  On and on.  The same thing happened regarding the Sandy Hook massacre, the Las Vegas shooting, and the San Bernadino shooting. The signals were all there, but there was no place, no one who could connect all the dots.

That's a problem in our current Information Age.  We have the ability to eavesdrop on conversations on the other side of the world, and we do, but then the question is what to DO with all the information we've collected? 

Then we have the issue of "individual liberties" guaranteed us by our Constitution.  It's not illegal to be a little wacko.  It's not illegal to own a gun, or many guns.  A welfare check by the cops isn't grounds to arrest anyone, nor to involuntarily commit anyone for mental evaluation.  It's only AFTER a wacko gun owner flips out and kills that authorities can DO anything.  We should change that, you say?  Great....except where is that thin line that keeps over zealous authorities from becoming self-proclaimed judges and juries, too?

My point is, while looking at gun proliferation, and at violence on TV and in video games, and at over-stressed single parents, and at under-manned police departments and over-burdened courts, and the untreated mentally ill, etc are all important, wrapping up all those factors into a single actionable, legal, authorization to DO something is going to be darn near impossible.  Try to connect the dots, sure, but understand this is going to make the 9-11 mandate look like a simple childs game of cops and robbers. 

S