Former Virginia governor candidate Creigh Deeds is fighting for his life after he was brutally stabbed by his own 24-year-old son, who then committed suicide – just one day after he was committed to a psychiatric ward but released because there were no beds available.

Deeds, a state senator, is in critical condition at University of Virginia hospital after he was found stumbling away from his home in rural Bath County, Virginia, by a cousin who happened to be driving by.

Deeds was stabbed multiple times in the head and torso and lost large amounts of blood.

The veteran Democratic state legislator’s son Gus was found shot dead, as well.

Gus had been evaluated by psychiatrists at a mental hospital on Monday, but could not be committed because there was no room at any mental health wards in all of western Virginia, according to reports.

This is incredibly tragic, and entirely preventable.

A seemingly well-intentioned but ultimately destructive desire by left-leaning groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to “mainstream” the mentally ill has resulted in in-patient mental health treatment being dramatically scaled back in recent decades, and the closure of facilities nationwide.

Why does this matter on a shooting-centric site? Because the failure of the mental health care system is continual, and are an intrinsic part of most recent high-profile violent episodes, from the Virginia Tech massacre, to the Giffords shooting, to the Aurora theater shooting, to Sandy Hook. In each of these instances, the perpetrators were know to have had mental health issues that should have resulted in their being committed to long-term in-patient psychological care. In each of these instances, the long-running war on mental health has cost many innocent people their lives.

The problem in the Deeds home is the same as it is nationwide; the mental health system has been destroyed by radical left-wing ideologues that want to pretend that the dangerously mentally ill just need a hug and a s’more as we all sing Kumbaya.

That doesn’t work.

That hasn’t worked.

It’s time to stop blaming firearms, and start reversing decades of disastrous mental health policies that leave the dangerously mentally ill walking the streets.