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Every time I hear a gun control advocate talk about mandatory background checks for criminal record and mental illness, I want to scream and throw stuff at the TV. Being proven guilty of a violent crime should land you on a list of people who can not purchase or own a gun. Mental illness is completely different matter. How much mental illness before you start to lose your Constitutional rights.
I am a mental health patient and a dedicated progressive. I see a psychiatrist for anti-anxiety, anti-depressant medication. I, and countless other mental health patients, will stop, and never seek mental health care again if the police and the government are allowed to build a data base of mental health patients of any kind.
Making reporting of potentially dangerous mental health patients voluntary for providers will cause providers to report anyone who even says the word “kill” for fear of being sued. I can imagine the law suit the first time a mental health patient shoots someone and that person wasn’t reported to the authorities.
This idea is an enormous violation of Doctor/patient privacy and more importantly to multiple civil rights of individual mental health patients.
The way to address the mental health portion of the gun violence debate is to remove the stigma attached to mental illness so more people who need mental health care will seek it. Putting patients on a target list will have the opposite effect of reducing mental health related gun violence.
Repeal the 2nd Amendment!
6 Comments
“Repeal the 2nd Amendment!” Prolly fly right alongside pigs.
BUT! You are dead on about “mental illness”. First thing that occurred to me when the NRA started in on this dodge. First and foremost, mental health professionals have a singularly absymal record diagnosing dangerous mental conditions that may lead to lone-wolf terrorist episodes.
I hope you know that there are legions of people who would no more consult a mental health professional than jump out a fourth story window. Simple: Don’t get your name on that list; you can’t afford it. This has been an item for 40 years. Oh sure, your medical records are sacrosanct. Right? Yeah, sure. Welcome to reality.
I agree that mental illness should not be a stigma. That being said I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of allowing folks that have severe mental illness to have access to guns. I grew up in a household with a paranoid schizophrenic who had access to a weapon. He terrorized our household before shooting a police officer and going to prison. There were days I thought he would kill my mother and us and then himself as he sometimes threatened. Families of those mentally ill should not live each day in fear that they will be the first victims of a mentally ill person. I sympathize because I know that no one ASKS to be sick and I know that we do not stigmatize diseases like diabetes or heart disease in the same way that we stigmatize mental health but I also believe that unlike these diseases mental illness is something where there are huge chances that an untreated individual will not just hurt themselves but others as well.
Most mentally ill people don’t hurt others, or kill them. THAT is what upsets me about the idea of the mental “health” disqualification. It is just another red herring. Who is going to decide when/whether and who among the many “lone wolves” in our midst is going to end up as a mass murderer? Mass murdering is pretty much a one time offense. And while some of these folks may have exhibited signs of mental illness prior to the shooting, it is not like we could KNoW things would go that way ahead of the event.
The 2nd amendment is all about addiction to guns and violence. IMO. I just love to tell these people that their Bushmaster is no match for the GPS in their cars and phones, for the surveillance of their e-mails and tweets and that drones don’t care what guns they have. So, whatever.
I have some questions for you based upon your comment.
Did you diligently attempt to get mental health help for your family member or did they refuse. I assume that he saw a mental health professional at some time for you to have a diagnosis of paranoid/schizophrenic.
Why in the world did you keep guns in the house with a severely mentally ill person.
This was the problem at New Town and many other mass shooting. People who have guns in the house with known severe mentally ill people are not only stupid, but accepting of living in fear and partially culpable for the violence they perpetrate on themselves and others. Get rid of the damn guns. I’ll never understand why gun owners feel their “right” to own guns trumps others rights not to be shot by them.
It depends on what constitutes the mental healh portion of a background check. And that depends on the regulations and who is answering the questions. One issue that could be predictive is unprosecuted spousal abuse or child abuse. But the possibility of serious invasions of privacy are immense, given the paramilitary bigfooted tendencies of the police in the US.
It also depends on what mental health services are provided to the entire community. Victims of gun violence can become perpetrators of gun violence. Mental health services can deal with issues that left alone could result in in revenge killing or a suicide. That is, mental health services might break what would otherwise be a chain of violence.
Could, would, should. The quintessence of American public policy.