I am not at all opposed to focusing first on mental health

[ashling]

rather than simply "gun control."

The first thing that should be required of anyone obtaining a gun is a full psychological evaluation. Additionally, there should be a new and full classification in the DSM for
amosexual and or addiction to liberty requiring gun ownership


of course, the first criteria would be

"wanting to own or possess a firearm"

[Maedhros]

1. Gun violence issues aside, the way we treat the mentally ill in this country is despicable.

We need to provide treatment and housing for the mentally ill.

[ashling]

2. Having worked in the mental health field (not a clinician)

I could not agree more

[world wide wally]

3. Since every mass shooting seems to be perpetrated by someone who is "mentally ill"…. it begs the

question:
Why is it so fucking easy for the "mentally ill" to get a hold of a gun?

Any serious answers from gun lovers?

[TipTok]

7. The answer is that we live in a society that values privacy and personal freedom...

... especially as it relates to medical health.

Even if the government were to decide that certain mental health diagnoses were disqualifiers...

Which ones would they choose? How do you quantify what constitutes a red flag? How long would the flag be for? Would a person with a disqualifying diagnosis in their 20s be barred in their 40s after 20 years without incident?

Many of the proposed 'solutions' to gun violence are worse than the cure (to include stripping millions of American's of their privacy rights)

[world wide wally]

8. So then, all we can possibly do is to live with these mass murders every week?

well, "live" if we are lucky.
What would be the difference if we just lived in the jungle?

[loyalsister]

4. Most people don't like to consider alcoholism a mental illness

Yet, alcohol is a common denominator in homicide and suicide....

These two broad categories of behavior are often related. Of the 395,366 firearms-related deaths reported in the United States between 1997 -- when this data were actually collected -- and 2009 -- the latest date for which the tally of firearms-related deaths is available -- about one-third are thought to have involved alcohol. In 2007, 34.5% of suicide and homicide victims in the United States had alcohol in their systems at the time of death, and 60% of those were considered acutely intoxicated.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/16/news/la-heb-guns-alcohol-gunowners-risk-taking-20110615

It is also much easier to hide than diagnosable psychiatric disorders assumed to be associated with gun violence.

[Brickbat]

5. This is a shitty thing to say.

[uppityperson]

6. I am amazed at the extremist views from so many different sides of this. eom