Gentle Words might go Further than an Arrest

 We think of the Parkland shooter, Nikolaus Cruz, and of how he had made threats, suggesting he liked to see people in pain, and would like to shoot up the school.
  And we wonder he wasn't cut off at the pass, so to speak. We think he should have been arrested for his threats, so that the violence would never have occurred.
   Fast forward to the Salt Lake City area, to just last week, where Gary Mills was attending a church service and got agitated over a song being sung, and went outside, and another church-goer followed him.
  "I would be ready to take up arms and bomb federal buildings," Mills reportedly told the person who followed him out.
   A day later, police arrested Mills, hauling him off to jail for investigation of making a terroristic threat.
   Little doubt that the desire to cut a might-be terrorist off at the pass was at least part of the reasoning for arresting Mills.
   Was it the right move?
   I think of human nature, of how when we are attacked, we counter attack. We are like cornered dogs, and we bite most when we are cornered.
   Mills might be released. Or, he might go to court. Let's say he is convicted. If so, someday he will be back out. Maybe the arrest will shake him, humble him, prompt him to change his ways.
   Maybe.
   But, maybe the tendency to dig in and fight back -- also a human nature -- will kick in. Maybe, he only becomes more of a threat.
   I think of the new laws that have sprung up since the Parkland shooting. I have not time to study them now, but believe some of them call for treatment and intervention rather than placement in jail. I wonder if this is the better path. I do not know how much counseling police provided Mills, or whether that was considered outside what police should do.
   But, I think it the right path to take. You show love. You talk kindly. You tell the person his threats are wrong, but you do it gently, lovingly.
   We can dismiss what Mills said as an idle and meaningless threat. Perhaps it was. We can say he should have free speech, and arresting him for expressing it is wrong. I will wonder.
   But, the one thing you certainly should do, is to intervene. You talk to him. You try to talk him a different direction. Just like catching a person about to jump off a bridge, and commit suicide, you talk. The concept is the same and the principle no different. You use gentle, calming, reasoning words.
   The man might still jump off the bridge, true. And, we don't know what will become of Gary Mills. Idle talk that doesn't even need correction? Perhaps. But, perhaps a gentle talking to would thwart a mass killing.
  Who knows.