Mental Health Reporting in Background Checks

[BigO01]

In the wake of the VA shootings in which the shooter was obviously deranged there will no doubt be Bills introduced all across the land to change what is and is not reported to the state and will be recorded in a background check .

The problem with all of this is the way dangerous behavior and or mental illness is defined and what should constitute a situation in which someone should be stripped of their Second Amendment Rights .

As we all know the Medical profession as a whole isn't 2A friendly and they would be called upon to supply their expertise in wording these laws and the diagnoses or definition and wording of the law can be influenced by personal Bias .

While most of us would easily agree that the diagnoses of say being paranoid schizophrenic , a sociopath or a psychopath should prevent someone from owning a gun . What about less benign forms of mental illness or what is popularly considered a mental illness and a reason to be committed to a mental institution ?

Alcoholism is a common reason many are committed in today society and considered a mental illness yet under certain circumstances completely cured and understandable as to how/why it happened .

For instance a family member of a VA style shooting victim turns to alcohol to relieve the pain of their loss and in time sees what their life has become and is committed to dry out . The state has deemed this as a dangerous condition and it is reported to the state , after being treated and cured should that person be prevented from owning a firearm when the only person they hurt was themselves in their grieving ?

Drug addiction , it isn't just street drugs that people become addicted to . In our culture there are literally Hundreds of thousands of people who have Pill Pushers for the family doctor . Rather than taking the time to provide the correct treatment they simply dole out whatever is the most popular or profitable antidepressant to the patient .

Often after years of eating pills these people find a treatment that includes a mental health professional and end their addiction to the prescription drugs they have taken for years .

Getting into the Doctor patient privilege laws is a very slippery slope that many law abiding citizens need to be aware of before it gets out of their hands and into those of overzealous law makers and Anti Gunners !

 

[steveno]

don't forget the ACLU one one side or the other depending upon which way the wind is blowing

 

[ArmedBear]

Unfortunately, this subject is so rife with Catch-22's that we probably won't find a good solution.

For those who haven't read the old Joseph Heller novel set during WW II, here's the definition in the author's words, of Catch 22, which applied to psych evals for bomber pilots:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

Think about how this applies to gun owners if the shrink is anti-gun!

Now, consider Heller's further application of Catch-22 in his book, this time as it applied to military agents in his semi-fictional world: "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing."

In a summary:

Catch-22 states that agents enforcing Catch-22 need not prove that Catch-22 actually contains whatever provision the accused violator is accused of violating.

Thanks to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22 I haven't read the book in many years.

Anyway, I think you see where this is going.

Remember, not long ago, people were committed for masturbation. The pendulum has surely swung all the way in the other direction, but how do we codify craziness?

How many people would we need to hold against their will to catch the one truly dangerous one? How many people could we institutionalize and STILL have psychotic murderers running loose?

 

[BAT1]

It gets worse

You get your gun owners notice in the mail, informing you of your scheduled yearly mental evaluation to keep your permit. We just need more properly armed citizens, not a new way to take freedoms in the process of calming the misinformed public.

 

[Bezoar]

Mental Health experts are a joke, here is why.

My grandmother has alzheimers and dementia. When she decided to take a knife and swing at the meals on wheels people, the "professional" who askd her the questions, found her to be a nice little lady with no problems at all, even though she washed the street down wearing a winter coat, in july; reported open windows as breakins (which got the cops swarming the place to no purpose); swiping at the meals on wheels people, and thinkin roosevelt was still president. adn after telling him pink elephants crawled on the tv, and turtles danced on the couch...

Teachers are getting the power to diagnose students with learnign disorders. Most of the time the teacher has nooooo training whatsoever in any medical field. ANd the student being diagnosed is the one who hassles incompetent teachers. While families get in trouble for not doing exactly as the teacher ordered, even medication the teacher recomends for som reason.

And something else, what about learning disorders? A lot of them, like add, are technically mental disorders, thus mental ilness. Is it going to be, "sorry james but 21 years ago your 20 year old kindergarted teacher said you were hyper in class, and diagnosed you with ADHD, so even after an honorable discharge from the seals, we cant let you have a gun."