Focusing on mental health instead of gun control

[SharpDog]

Trump Focused on Mental Health Legislation Instead of Gun Control:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...al-health-legislation-instead-of-gun-control/

And for all of the Breitbart haters:

https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2019/...l-health-not-gun-control-new-hampshire-rally/

https://news.uudis.eu/source-trump-focused-on-mental-health-legislation-instead-of-gun-control

 

[Zaydok Allen]

If it’s a legit effort to help people who need it and prevent violence, I think it’s great so long as constitutional rights are preserved and it doesn’t lead to a rebranding of red flag laws.

Though I’ve never heard any sort of actual real and structured proposal on how to address mental health as a country.

Doesn’t mean someone doesn’t have a legit plan though, just means I haven’t seen it.

 

[Slamfire]

Though I’ve never heard any sort of actual real and structured proposal on how to address mental health as a country.

It is a very difficult problem, just Friday a NYC Cop was severely beaten with a metal chair by Kwesi Ashon, a man who family said "He struggled with mental illness and we tried desperately to get help for him to no avail" If you have ever been in a big city park, or homeless city, you will see people (mostly men, but a few women) with mental problems. There was a time these people were in mental wards, but society preferred to close the wards and let the mentally ill out into the general population. So if American is doing nothing for these people, how exactly are we going to keep guns away from the angry ones who will go on a rampage?

 

[GEM]

As I know a touch about such this is the usual Trump and NRA bull crap about the issue.

 

[Roamin_Wade]

I kinda feel like the reason for a lot of these mass shootings are from the young folks that grew up taking these powerful tricyclic antidepressants. Also, they give methamphetamine, literally, to those that are hyper active. How can that really help a 12 year old in the long term? Now they want to focus on these folks with more mental healthcare, which will include more of the same meds? I just feel like we are going backwards instead of forward. Anyone else feel as I do? What we should be doing is introducing shooting classes back into schools so firearms aren’t a huge interesting curiosity to kids growing up in gunless homes but something like that would be impossible these days because of the politics. I just don’t get why we can all be extremely intelligent people individually but collectively we do stupid crap...

 

[DocRock]

As I know a touch about such this is the usual Trump and NRA bull crap about the issue.

And yet...who cares? Better that the Bad Orange Man and the vile Wayne LaPierre should fiddle and dissemble over mental health, with the potential at least that there is some improvement in federal efforts on mental health, than that one more iota of the RKBA is chipped away.

 

[Darkhorse]

I kinda feel like the reason for a lot of these mass shootings are from the young folks that grew up taking these powerful tricyclic antidepressants. Also, they give methamphetamine, literally, to those that are hyper active. How can that really help a 12 year old in the long term? Now they want to focus on these folks with more mental healthcare, which will include more of the same meds? I just feel like we are going backwards instead of forward. Anyone else feel as I do? What we should be doing is introducing shooting classes back into schools so firearms aren’t a huge interesting curiosity to kids growing up in gunless homes but something like that would be impossible these days because of the politics. I just don’t get why we can all be extremely intelligent people individually but collectively we do stupid crap...

I'm all for shooting classes and/or orher legitimate gun education in the classroom.

My wife and two adult sons have taken tricyclic antidepressants and found them to be very effective in dealing with anxiety and depression. However, I watch them carefully for any unfavorable side effects, and would act quickly if I saw anything that concerned me. I read the long paper listing side effects which is included with each prescription refill. They all have access to guns (my wife carrys also), but these drugs have had a very positive effect on my family.

But...the wrong person taking them, with minimal (or no) supervision...I can see how things could go wrong.

 

[Deus Machina]

And why is this bad? Assuming it doesn't overstep certain bounds.
As someone that spent their teenage through college years suffering from clinical depression (thankfully not the most drastic emotional aspects), recently from some minor PTSD, and believing myself to be a generally decent person, I'm all for making any effective mental health treatment more available.

 

[hq]

They tried that approach here in Finland after 2007 and 2008 spree shootings, as both perpetrators were mental health patients on SSRI medication.

The result? Anti-gun lobby perverted the idea by labeling all gun owners potential sociopaths and managed to enact a mandatory (now defunct) evaluation for anyone willing to purchase a gun. Even if it's their tenth or fiftieth gun, not just the first one. It was ridiculous, expensive and clogged up the polyclinics and hospitals unnecessarily.

Never underestimate how certain politicians can turn even the best of ideas on their heads. The road to hell truly is paved with good intentions.

 

[LaneP]

My father grew up during the WWII era. You could walk into a hardware store and purchase a repeating pistol or long gun and the only qualification for purchase was that you had enough money in your wallet to pay for it. School yard disagreements were settled with fisticuffs and once the dust settled, everyone went back to the business of life, with seldom a long term grudge held. What in the world has happened since that era? Now it seems like "mental health issues" are epidemic depending on who you listen to.

 

[shafter]

Extreme caution will be needed to avoid labeling certain beliefs as mental health issues. What happens when you're labeled as being a nut job for not wanting the flu shot, or say something negative against any number of the current social or political issues today? I can already see this happening.

I think trying to figure out which hands to keep guns out of is the wrong approach. The biggest reason we own guns is to protect us from those who are dangerous. It's simple. Let everyone keep and bear arms and be responsible for their own protection and that of their family.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

They tried that approach here in Finland after 2007 and 2008 spree shootings, as both perpetrators were mental health patients on SSRI medication.

The result? Anti-gun lobby perverted the idea by labeling all gun owners potential sociopaths and managed to enact a mandatory (now defunct) evaluation for anyone willing to purchase a gun. Even if it's their tenth or fiftieth gun, not just the first one. It was ridiculous, expensive and clogged up the polyclinics and hospitals unnecessarily.

Never underestimate how certain politicians can turn even the best of ideas on their heads. The road to hell truly is paved with good intentions.

That’s exactly the type of thing that worries me.

 

[JFrank]

A middle of the road position for Trump that gives him a talking point and still allows him to maintain funding from the NRA, isn’t politics just fund raising and picture painting.

 

[GEM]

We don’t need another Trump debate based on a start ignorant and posturing premise.

Closed