Issue 245 Guns and mental illness January 8, 2013

Guns have come under attack lately due to the mass shootings that have occurred in both 2012 and 2013. But the guns themselves are not the problem, but the person wielding them. In this case the mentally ill have become the primary culprit in a number of these shootings. So what is up with these people even being able to get there hands on a gun in the first place?

The Problem: It cannot be denied that criminals will get their hands on guns and other weapons whether we make them illegal for everyone else to use or not. Because lets face it, they're criminals and they don't obey any laws. In fact, they could even set up there own weapons factories like the Taliban did in the Afghanistan mountains (yes you can make a gun at home even though it is illegal to do so). So it becomes about limiting guns getting into the hands of individuals that are a clear risk to themselves and those around them. In this case that group of people is the mentally ill which have currently zero restrictions on being able to get a firearm.

Why is this so?: Mainly the reason people with mental illness can even be able to acquire a gun is impart due to the mental health system in America. Currently, a mentally ill patient cannot get any sort of special treatment until they pose a clear threat to themselves or those around them. As such, if the person suffers from a disorder, their family cannot have them get help because they have not demonstrated a threat to anyone. So this needs to change.

What needs to be done: For one, the mentally ill need to have the law amended to allow them to receive help before they intend to hurt themselves or others. That is as simple as this change will get. Following this, the mentally ill will need to be registered in a data base defining their risk to others. This dictates if they can or cannot own a gun.

Why not ban all the mentally ill from owning a gun?: The main reason not to ban all people with mental illnesses is that not all of them are a danger to society and to make them all out to be a danger is a stereotype that boarders on full out negative discrimination. In fact studies have been done that show a good portion of our military suffers from some form of mental illness or another both while serving or developing while serving (PTSD is the main culprit). As such, defining who is a danger or not must be done on a case by case basis as some members of the mentally ill community may need guns for self protection.

Conclusion: You will never keep guns out of the hands of non-law abiding citizens and even if you try to prevent a mentally ill patient from acquiring a gun, it does not stop someone from buying one for them. However, we can reduce the problem considerably by changing the rules to allow the mentally ill to get the help they deserve, not when others feel they need it.