Obama on gun control and mental health...more harm than good?
We don't really know if there will be more harm than good. As a person who has felt the sting of institutionalized discrimination against persons with mental disorders I am troubled by Obama's approach
I don't expect people to agree on this topic. I expect DUers to mostly accept what Obama has done, and I expect that mostly because Obama is nothing if not a master at sensing what the limits of the politically possible are.
People with mental disorders face much prejudice and discrimination. It's not just a question of whether you want a person with a mental disorder to buy a gun. It's also whether you would accept a person with a mental disorder as a surgeon. If you would willingly let your children be taught by a teacher with a mental disorder. If you think that cops should stay on the job if they have a mental disorder. If you would tolerate living at your address if a neighbor was known to have a mentall disorder. If you would allow a co-worker on 'your team' if that person had a mental disorder.
Restricting gun sales to persons with mental disorders is not too important to the mentally ill. Their problems are bigger. Their problems are ~80% unemployment. Their problems are loss of friends and co-workers. Having no trustworthy references for a job application is a problem. Being reduced to 'no viable options' is a problem. It greatly contributes to poverty, isolation and suicidality of people with mental disorders.
Against that experience Obama has called for something over half a billion dollars to treat people with mental disorders. He HAS NOT made 600 million dollars available, that depends upon Congress. But, HEY!, more money DOES need to be spent on mental illness. Yes, it really does.
The question is whether an appeal for more money to address mental illness (an appeal unlikely to be fulfilled by a republican house) is really a fair trade with a clear statement that Obama has accepted the misperception that people with mental disorders are really the core problem with gun violence.
