General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If we don't focus on the mentally ill how are background checks supposed to work? [View all]inwiththenew
(972 posts)Weve dug ourselves such a deep hole that it is going to take a generation or two to get out of it. Short of an outright ban and confiscation which is not feasible either legally, politically, or logistically, Im not sure what we do.
I think we need all the mental health records to be compiled and put into the database that the background checks to flag potentially dangerous individuals. But even that is probably not realistic for the reasons listed above. That would be a tough fight that would take some convincing from probably both mental health and privacy advocates. The unintended consequence of that though is that people will not seek mental health for fear of labeled or flagged as a potentially dangerous person.
Ive seen the idea floated that gun owners undergo psychological evaluation but would a mental health professionals be given any type of immunity if they clear someone and then that person goes on a shooting spree or would they be liable?
Now dont take this as a maintain status quo attitude because I think something needs to be done but quite honestly I dont know what if Im being honest with myself. Back to my first sentence I think it will honestly take a generation or two to change the attitudes of gun ownership in this country.
And honestly even if we eliminated all homicides (one person killing another) whether justified or not we still wouldn't even cut the gun deaths in half. It would only reduce them by about 40%.