In the wake of the Florida school gunman's killing of at least 17 victims, it is time we took violent mental illness seriously.  It is time to crack down on those sick people who have threatened to attack or kill conservative office-holders and President Donald Trump.

Before we talk of further limits on Second Amendment constitutional citizen rights to keep and bear arms, we ought to be willing to disarm those who have openly exceeded the First Amendment by expressing their wish to shoot or otherwise violently attack those who hold different political views.

It can no longer be treated as mere theatrics when singer Madonna tells a crowd in the wake of Mr. Trump's election that she has thought "an awful lot" about "blowing up the White House."  Or when Johnny Depp declares that "maybe it's about time" that another "actor assassinated a president," as in John Wilkes Booth's 1865 murder of President Abraham Lincoln.

We should no longer tolerate the likes of comedian Kathy Griffin holding up what looks like the bloody severed head of President Trump, or late-night host Stephen Colbert depicting the head of White House conservative Stephen Miller impaled on a spike, as in the days of King Henry VIII.

Americans should not approve when New York City's Shakespeare in the Park depicts the assassination of an actor who looks like Mr. Trump.  Nor should we ignore videos by Snoop Dogg or Marilyn Manson in which these singers shoot a character made to resemble our president.  These are more than shooting off one's mouth.  These are "how to" hate guides broadcast to millions of impressionable young people like the mentally unbalanced Florida shooter, potentially motivating them to imitate such anti-conservative violence.

We need to rethink what it means when comic Larry Wilmore jokes that he wants to take "the pillow they used to kill Scalia" and use it to cut off Donald Trump's "oxygen."  We need to take it seriously when singer Bette Midler tweets, "Where's Rand Paul's neighbor when we need him?," referring to a neighbor who violently assaulted the Kentucky Republican senator.

We need to remember that a socialist Bernie Sanders supporter stalked and opened fire on a group of Republican lawmakers, severely wounding and nearly killing House majority whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.  This ideological leftist fanatic might have killed all his targets but was thwarted because Scalise had an armed security detail.

Leftist views favoring coercion and government theft are inherently a form of mental illness.  When combined with the emotional advocacy of mindless hate and violence, those drunk on this toxic alchemy should be prohibited from possessing firearms themselves and should be forbidden from employing any armed "bodyguards" to carry out their wishes.

Unwilling to accept the rejection of their views by voters' ballots, these leftists now seem eager to remove Mr. Trump and other Republicans with bullets from the violent environment they conjure.  Any rational person would see that this is anti-democratic lunacy and could lead to a new civil war.

We have seen the "mad" in the minds of those like singer Madonna.  We can no longer wink at such violent insanity.  America needs to disarm the Looney Left.

Lowell Ponte is a veteran think-tank futurist and author or co-author of eight books.  His latest, co-authored with Craig R. Smith, is Money, Morality & The Machine, available free and postpaid by calling 800-630-1492.  Lowell can be reached for interviews by email at radioright@aol.com.