Doctors Could be Required to Report Potentially Dangerous Patients Under Obama's Proposal

2012 ended with two of the deadliest mass shootings on record.  The Colorado movie theatre shooting and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.

In both cases, the gunmen shared a common theme.

"In these cases the unfortunate consistent theme is someone who had fallen through the cracks when it came to the mental health system," said Governor Scott Walker.

While President Obama pushes legislation to ban the sales of assault rifles, other lawmakers are asking the question "should more be done to treat mental illness?"

"Anytime someone is at risk we have a moral responsibility to act on that.  But that goes to the heart of the evil that is inherent in the person, not in which the tool they are using," Walker said.

In New York, Governor Cuomo passed a law that would require psychiatrists to report "potentially" dangerous patients.

In Wisconsin, doctors are already obligated to report patients who could potentially be a threat to others under the "Duty to Warn" Act.

But some psychiatrists say the new law in New York is vague, and fails to recognize that there are levels of severity to patients' aggressiveness.

Dr. Brian Eggener, a psychiatrist at the Brown County Community Treatment Center, said "The phrase potentially dangerous applies to a lot of awful people. People being arrested are potentially dangerous; people under tremendous amounts of stress can be potentially dangerous. It's a difficult thing to asses. "

According to Dr. Eggener, 90% of murders are committed by mentally stable people.

He says just because the gunmen who committed these senseless acts of violence happened to be mentally ill, doesn't mean everyone with mental illness is violent.

"People with mental illness are more likely to be victimized than they are to become violent," he said.

One of the issues both sides of the spectrum agree on is that more money needs to be put towards mental health research and funding.