Obama To Push Gun Control Soon

From the article Duke cited:

"Among the many “fixes” the group has in mind is that “people who have been suspended or expelled from a federally funded college or university because of mental illness” and “people who are compelled by a court to take medication for mental illness or to get other mental health care” would be prohibited from possessing firearms."

Apparently the way to make this work would be to make mental illness a federal offense. In that way, people who are mentally ill would be reported to the F.B.I., thus giving them a criminal record that would show up on an N.I.C.S. check.

Then, once mental illness becomes a federal offense, there will have to be sentencing guidelines for we could not let these criminals walk the streets without the threat of punishment.

Should there be different mandatory sentences for schizophrenics as opposed to, say, a bi-polar individual? And would those with multiple personalities have to serve multiple terms in the pokey?

And what about those inclined to drool on themselves ? (you know who you are) Should they be forced to wear lobster bibs in public?

How about a mandatory life sentence for those with suicidal tendencies? (You couldn't sentence them to death: that would make the judge and/or jury guilty of aiding and abetting.)

Frankly, I think this idea opens up a whole new area for social engineering and I can't wait to hear the comments from Rush, Sean and Sarah.

well put Erv. i actually know people that have schizoprhenia and/or bi-polar disorder and own guns with clean records.

i wonder when they'll add depression. everyone out of a few has had depression at a time or another, but they didn't reach for the gun to solve the problem. we can thank the Tuscon jackass that shot the congresswoman for alot of the stuff that we're about to see. that was a tipping point, and supposedly she was a gun owner/carrier

So far as gun control is concerned I think one significant part of the Arizone shooting was under-reported: That one of those who helped subdue the shooter was licensed to carry, was packing, but DID NOT use the opportunity to "light up" the shooter.

The restraint and responsibility he showed was a credit to all gun owners.

This article is posted at one of our local gun stores. Very dismal times at the moment, not only for people with disorders for the reasons pointed out but for responsible gun owners as well. Hope nothing comes of it.

The real tragedy comes from further stigmatizing mental illnesses so that people who really need medical treatment will be even less likely to get the help they need.

As was already posted, many people have gone through a period of what might be called depression in their lives. I remember after my father passed away that for a year or so I was probably clinically depressed. Not suicidal or anything, just had lost the joy of life and a sense of purpose or direction. I didn't seek treatment and eventually worked my way through it.

But there are already too many penalties (try getting life insurance) for being diagnosed with depression. Add the loss of a fundamental constitutional right, and how many people do you think would tell a Doctor they were feeling depressed, if they knew that would put them in a federal database of the mentally ill?

And how many of those might eventually actually commit suicide or suffer for years when they could have been helped by getting treatment or counseling at the right time?

Definitely one of those things where we try to "fix" the one-in-a-million statistical outlier (i.e. the Tucson shooter) and end up causing hardship for hundreds or thousands of others for no reason.

When my first child was about to be born the nurses chased me out of my wifes room while they did whatever nurses do. As I sat waiting in the hallway I noticed a blackboard with the names of patients and their status. Next to my wife's name was the word "breech" and I knew that wasn't good.

Soon her doctor arrived. First time I'd seen him, though my wife raved about him. By his swarthy skin he looked to be Middle or Far Eastern and when he called me into the room I learned he still had a great deal of the accent of the country from which he came.

He explained that they would have to do a Caesarian operation and then explained why. Among the other words I tried to make out - as he raised his hands to frame his head - was that a normal delivery of a breech baby often resulted in the baby being "depressed".

Although I said nothing, the thoughts that came to me in that instant were: "So why such a big deal? I get depressed and I get over it."
"Besides, with a baby how the hell do you know when they're depressed?"

Well, obviously, he meant "compressed" but it was one of those moments I'll probably always recall.

By morning I had a fine, uncompressed son.

Here comes another danged ammo shortage.

If they take guns off people they say have issues, what are WE going to do?