Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: How Israel avoids school shootings [View all]davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)even among the severely mentally ill, have actually been declared mentally incompetent by a judge? I can tell you, it's one hell of a process and rarely happens in any but the most severe circumstances.
No, I'm not talking about anyone who goes to grief counseling, I'm not a fan of McCarthy and no, no one needs to be disqualified for counseling.
What I'm talking about is a reasonable psychological evaluation to determine if you're likely to be a danger to yourself, or to others, if you want to own a fire arm. The goal is to limit access to fire arms (at least somewhat) for people who are ready to kill themselves or others. Granted, they could use any number of tools for this - but generally speaking, guns are the most widely available (to the average person) that can cause so many deaths so quickly.
There is a big difference between mild depression and someone who has attempted suicide multiple times, or someone who is bi-polar, off their meds and in a manic state as opposed to someone who's condition is controlled by a responsible physician and medication/counseling. Since you're asking, I am talking about more severe cases.
I'm not suggesting we limit weapons to the elite, to any particular class or creed. Rather, I am saying that some of us simply should not be legally permitted to own them. I should not be. I won't go into detail about why, but suffice it to say I have greater issues than mild depression.
If you want to have a gun, for self defense, hunting, for whatever purpose you desire (provided it's legal) then fine. Is it really so unreasonable that we take steps to ensure they don't end up in the wrong hands quite as frequently as they do?
A gun is a tool, but it is a dangerous tool, as such, I think it needs to be handled with more care and responsibility.
The current system in place DOES suck.