Reporting mental illness.

So I just finished reading. This article on CNN when I came upon this paragraph.

The laws fortify New York's existing assault weapons ban, limit the number of bullets allowed in magazines and strengthen rules that govern the mentally ill, which includes a requirement to report potentially harmful behavior.

What the hell?

Define mentally ill.

A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. The good news about mental illness is that recovery is possible.

Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan.

www.nami.org...


Wow, that can be anyone who is even slightly socially awkward. Since when are gun shop clerks psychologists? Is this the kind.of world we want, where anyone different than us is suspect?

How about actually trying to medically cure mental illness instead of persecuting people for it.

Not letting people with mental illnesses purchase firearms sounds like a good idea on paper, but who has the final say on whether or not somebody is too mentally ill to own a gun. I understand if the person is telling his psychiatrist that they wish they could just kill a mass amount of people, then yah, he probably shouldn't be allowed to buy a gun. But where do they draw the line? How much mental illness is too much? They include OCD in the list of mental illnesses. Is someone with OCD really any likelier than anyone else to commit mass murder?

reply to post by metaldemon2000


Its not up to the clerks to determine mental illness.. I guess they could "reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" if the person is seriously out there.
I havent bought a weapon in years but I think that part of the background check, includes a medical records check.
I may be wrong though.

This is a disturbing trend, but not unexpected in the least.

If anyone is surprised by this at all, then they just have not been paying attention.
We will be seeing similar legislation passed in many more States.

Yes OP this is a gigantic grey area, it has been engineered for this very purpose. With these definitions in place anyone can be disqualified from owning a fire-arm for any reason, at the whim of the Govt.

All they need is a paid-for study that states the need to own a gun is linked to paranoia.

And voila !

who is required to report odd behavior?
if i dont like my neighbor can i report him for acting oddly and the police will come and search his house for weapons?
will the police now be able to search you and your property without a warrant (under probable cause) if you are acting "odd"
This law is to ambiguous it opens the door to abuse of citizens rights by the state

Originally posted by Juggernog
reply to post by metaldemon2000

 

Its not up to the clerks to determine mental illness.. I guess they could "reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" if the person is seriously out there.
I havent bought a weapon in years but I think that part of the background check, includes a medical records check.
I may be wrong though.

This law goes even further than just not selling them a gun this law says that they are required by law to report the person or presumably they could face criminal charges themselves for not reporting them.
Welcome to the new Amerika Komrades

reply to post by Tardacus

if i dont like my neighbor can i report him for acting oddly and the police will come and search his house for weapons

Yep you can and it happens more than most people realize. Innocent people get raided by SWAT more than whats reported, sometimes resulting in the homeowners getting killed because they have no idea whos busting down their door at 4am.
This is the era of "you see something say something"
I think something like this also happened during the salem witch trials, the hitler era and probably other times that arent even recorded.

In all honesty, there are a LOT of ways to kill a person, so if a person truly wants to kill another, remember that Cain didn't kill Abel with a gun.

You're absolutely right, taking fire-arms away won't cure crazy.

I don't care what they write on their papers or executive orders: they will have a tough time keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

They are also trying to label responsible gun owners who defend their 2nd amendment rights as "gun nuts" and "mentally ill".

I would never dispute the need to prevent the need for trying to sell a firearm to a n obviously disturbed individual but what scares me here is that this is going to open up a whole new problem.

Reported for being "mentally ill" diagnosed by a quick conversation with a gun salesman. Reported even.

For one, what happens when someone is "reported" and secondly when has it become a crime to be mentally ill,?

Also, people with some mental illnesses like OCD and bipolar disorder could safely own and use firearms.

Like I said, this complicates things.

Next I could see a registry for this sort of thing. What does it take to get on the registry? A public outburst of discontent at something? How far will this go?

Also, if you start to look at how they are painting conspiracy theorists as borderline extremists in the media lately it all starts to make sense.

Something foul is afoot.

Mentally ill people ARE LESS dangerous than normal people.

Sure there have been a few high profile cases but there also has been mass shooting by men who were upset with their wife or girlfriend.

There has been a lot of focus on the mentally ill. I think it's because you can control people under the guise of helping ill people.