Expanding/Instituting mental health checks as a condition of a gun purchase?

[Stinky The Clown]

Really?

How? What do you check?

Do you do a complete evaluation on a potential gun buyer?

Or do you cheap out and do some sort of profiling?

Who pays for these mental health checks?

Do we use actual psychiatrists or do we use some low level check list checker-offer?

Really. How would such mental health evaluations work?





Can we all agree that this idea is just NRA deflectional bullshit?

[loyalsister]

1. I think it goes beyond that

It's scapegoating and the people piling on are not only NRA supporters and gun enthusiasts. Even compassionate progressives are in on it.

[fadedrose]

2. Anyone running for national office

should have to take a mental exam.

[Punkingal]

3. NRA deflectional bullshit gets my vote....

[Runningdawg]

4. Here is just one issue

that mental health checks might not catch....I bought my first gun when I was 21. Was I insane then? NO
Hypothetically of course - I still own that gun when I am 60, but now I am bat-shit crazy.
Just like a DL, gun owners would have to be "re-checked" every few years in order for this to work.
I don't see this happening. We can't even stop grandma from plowing into the front of KFC.
When you start dipping in to peoples medical records, you are walking a fine line between individual rights and the greater good of the public.

[dembotoz]

5. i do worry about the compilation of a list of folks thought to be legally defective

a black list is never a good thing

i understand the do not fly list and the need for it, but i fear this list could be much more extensive.

would it be used for other purposes such as credit ratings are used for insurance.

could you be denied housing by making it on a list?

would it be a way around hippa regs?

is it the first step to putting folks in boxcars....

[Punkingal]

6. Yep....

I share your concerns. On all counts. Every "strange" person is not potentially dangerous, but when we start a list it will snowball.

[melm00se]

7. Issues with mental health checks

how accurate are they? look at any trial where mental health/competency is raised. each side parades out their "experts" and they can (and do) have different stances/opinions on the same person.

How much of the evaluation is subjective (thus subject to bias)?

How much is objective (less likely to be biased)?

By requiring such checks, how are bottlenecks prevented? You can't crank out 200 mental health professionals qualified to evaluate a person like you can crank out 200 records clerks.

Exactly what "conditions" can disqualify a prospective firearms owner?

Is it a permanent ban?

Can treatment lift the ban? If so, what treatment?

The mental health check meme sounds good, until you actually start to think about the mechanics of it and it quickly falls apart.