Gun Control is Not The Issue - Mental Health is the Issue

[John Boy 6]

Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.¹ When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.

http://www.nimh.nih....ica/index.shtml

 

For zero tolerance, to stop gun violence by individuals that have or later develop mental health issues, State and Federal Gun Control Legislation would have to identify 57.7 million people and preclude them from having access to firearms?

It's Impossible!

Even should there be a requirement for a mental health check, ie NJ proposed law, every 5 years. The doctor stamps my FID and handgun forms - 'Of Sound Mind' and a week later a gun owner goes into a state of some mental disorder and commits a violent act

[CMJeepster 2,778]

"During the four-years studied, there were nearly 122,000 gun deaths, 60 percent of them suicides."

 

 

From the article, "More gun laws = fewer deaths, 50-state study says" http://news.yahoo.com/more-gun-laws-fewer-deaths-134804944.html I'm no shrink, but if people want to kill themselves, they're going to find a way to do it...

[mipafox 438]

http://www.nimh.nih....ica/index.shtml

 

For zero tolerance, to stop gun violence by individuals that have or later develop mental health issues, State and Federal Gun Control Legislation would have to identify 57.7 million people and preclude them from having access to firearms?

 

 

It's Impossible!

 

It's not impossible, it's easy.  If 57.7 million is the number, then scoop up 150 million of the most likely and you'll get most of them.  Use Obamacare.  Give doctors quotas, half of their patients.

 

57.7 million?  20% of Americans shouldn't be allowed to own guns?  They have a a lot of confiscating to do unless most of the crazies are in California and the Northeast where gun ownership is so much lower and population higher.  In most states ownership is over 50%.

[fapipa 3]

Something similar has been tried before, in a country that no longer exists:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union

[Bob2222 317]

http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html

 

"Diagnosable mental disorder" is a dangerous term to incorporate into statutes, because DSM-IV includes stuff like...

 

Substance Related Disorders

 

Common Characteristics

 

The two disorders in this category refer to either the abuse or dependence on a substance. A substance can be anything that is ingested in order to produce a high, alter one's senses, or otherwise affect functioning. The most common substance thought of in this category is alcohol although other drugs, such as cocaine, marijuana, heroin, ecstasy, special-K, and crack, are also included. Probably the most abused substances, caffeine and nicotine, are also included although rarely thought of in this manner by the layman.

 

 

http://allpsych.com/...ance/index.html

 

I can already see the questionnaire; "Have you ever been to a coffee shop such as Starbucks?" Maybe it's a reach.... and maybe it's not. If we have an AG arguing that it's Constitutional to use armed drones to kill American citizens on American soil, it concerns me.

 

(I think it's reasonable to ask anyone who has been involuntarily committed or taken to the ER by LEOs within a certain number of years to appear before a judge and explain why that might have happened. But "diagnosable mental disorder" lets the gov't go a lot of places that it's probably best not to let them go. Depending on how they define a "mental disorder" it could probably include a lot more than 57.7 million people!)

[olderguy 0]

Just getting ahead of the "Death Panels"

 

Are older adults at risk?

 

Older Americans are disproportionately likely to die by suicide.

• Of every 100,000 people ages 65 and older, 14.3 died by suicide in 2007. This figure is higher than the national average of 11.3 suicides per 100,000 people in the general population. ¹
  
• Non-Hispanic white men age 85 or older had an even higher rate, with 47 suicide deaths per 100,000.¹