Friday, August 28, 2015

Guns Plus Mental Illness – A Recipe For Disaster

There have been too many killings lately at the hands of people with guns who are mentally ill. I have no issue with people having their guns, but there needs to be some way to prevent people who do not have the capacity to use them properly to get them and keep them. 

We are a country of many freedoms, but we also need to be able to protect people from those who are abusing those freedoms. The problem is: a person may be mentally stable when they buy the gun, then a mental “break” occurs and that gun is used in the wrong way. Other than mandating some sort of annual mental illness test in order to keep a handgun – which would likely not be legal,  much less practical – I don’t know how it could be policed.

There are so many new treatments for mental illness, but identifying the mentally ill and getting them access to and mandating treatment can be difficult.

I don’t have the answer. I’m not sure anyone does. But what I do know is that I am tired of innocent people being killed by someone who is mentally unstable.

We must find a solution!



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