I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that mental health exams for gun ownership....

[Tommy_Carcetti]

...would in any way be a bad thing.

Both to initially purchase a gun or to keep that gun.

I keep on hearing from gun enthusiasts, "But it's a mental health thing! It's a mental health thing!" as if that somehow shifts the conversation away from guns.

Is it really a mental health thing? Fine. It's a mental health thing.

Now let's talk about what happens when mentally unstable individuals are allowed to legally purchase guns.







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[MineralMan]

1. What mental health exams did you have in mind?

How would you do this?

Lots of questions raised, I think.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Perhaps something along the lines of what is administered to police or military.

Something independently administered so some potential gun owner can't just go out and pick whatever doctor friend he or she likes.

Of course it won't happen. That doesn't mean it shouldn't happen, even though it won't.

I would hope you and I agree that none of those people whose picture is in my OP had no business purchasing a gun. Yet all were legally allowed to do so.

[MineralMan]

10. And yet, those exams don't catch people, either.

The police seem to have plenty of people who shouldn't be armed. I assume the same is true for the military.

Who would administer these tests? Who would make the decisions? I'm not opposed to screening processes, but I want to hear how this might be handled, you see.

At what level of mental illness would firearms ownership be denied? Have a look at the DSM for descriptions of the full range of what could be called mental illnesses. Should someone with minor, but defined mental illnesses, be unable to own firearms? Should everyone being treated for anxiety disorders with some low dose of Xanax or some other common medication be ruled unfit?

You're calling for some broad requirement without thinking much about it, it seems to me. Lots more thought is needed.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. No system is foolproof.

But I shudder to think what the state of our police departments and military would be if there was no mental health screening.

[Logical]

2. There is NO WAY this would ever happen or even be possible! Logistics! nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. I'll be totally honest with you.

Any additional hurdles and steps added, which serves some legitimate purpose or addresses a legitimate concern about guns, that acts to slow down the mad rush to the gun shops and the gun shows, I'm perfectly fine with.

[Logical]

4. There is no way any politician would vote for this. And initially checking...

Millions of gun owners is a farce.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Of course it won't happen.

But just because it won't happen doesn't mean it shouldn't happen.

[Logical]

9. You are correct, it should be done but never will. nt

[MineralMan]

14. Actually, I suspect that if you were totally honest about this,

you'd say that you simply wanted individual firearms ownership to be forbidden, as many countries have done. Why not just work toward that, instead of trying to do the impossible. What is impossible is figuring out which people might, at some point, use their firearms in some antisocial way.

Given that we don't even require any sort of firearms safety training to purchase firearms, calling for some sort of universal mental health testing before being able to purchase firearms seems like throwing rocks at the moon because the light is keeping you awake.

As long as firearms are available for purchase by the general public, there is no test that can identify people who should not own them. There is no way to predict human behavior. We already have laws prohibiting firearms ownership by people who have been hospitalized for a mental illness. Even so, some such people purchase firearms on the secondary market, and will continue to.

In each of the examples you illustrated, none of those people met the criteria for being prohibited from owning firearms. Your mental health testing idea won't work, can't be implemented, and is simply a pipe dream.

[Neoma]

7. Violence happens more towards the mentally ill than the other way around.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

8. You may indeed be correct.

Still, there are just some people who by virtue of severe mental illness simply should not be legally allowed to purchase guns.

[Neoma]

13. Most of the time people are smart enough not to get one in the first place.

Honestly, I'd be a lot more concerned with people who commit domestic abuse. That is a decent background check.

The "mentally ill people are going to kill us!" is a scapegoat. The media is just as ableistic as they are racist or sexist, and the same goes to Hollywood. People are hugely uneducated about mental illnesses to the point that there isn't even any political correctness over it. And who's really going to speak up about it? Self-esteem issues are prevalent within the community and all most people can do is take inthe insults and cry themselves to sleep. Then it goes on to wishing they weren't mentally ill and this continues into a vicious cycle of denial.

No, you're just reinforcing the stigma at this point.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. But.......FREEDOM!

Seriously, the NRA says they would LIKE to see better mental health care in this country but they seriously aren't ever going to have government make people wait before buying guns or make people undergo a mental health exam or "counseling" beforehand. Mandatory waiting periods and "counseling" are only supposed to be for pregnant women, silly.........