Is it true Biden just said he wanted to take away 9mm from the public? Oh hell no. You’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands.
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I was wondering if there was a test because a long time ago doc gave me a suicide questionnaire asking direct questions like do you plan on hurting yourself. They didn’t have a strong enough NO to pick from so I said that. This guy did say he was going to hurt ppl. If a doctor had given him a similar questionnaire, would that be reason enough to detain him?
I agree to that.
And now I’m on page 185, which has this hilarious (in a very sad way) picture on it. Seriously, folks, this is a great book, worth the read.
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The country is already drowning in gun laws. How about enforcing existing laws, such that the small percentage of the population that are repeat offenders are taken off the streets permanently. That would reduce the problem greatly.
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Most emergency departments, including ours, uses a rubric which assesses how likely someone is going to hurt themselves or others in the next 24 hours. These formulas have a lot of evidence backing the validity.
Every patient who visits an emergency department or is observed or admitted in a hospital is asked if they feel safe at home, if they have had recent thoughs of hurting themselves or others, or if they have ever had suicidal thoughts. This includes demented 95 year old nursing home patients and three year olds with a cough. We also ask the three year olds if they smoke. (I’ve noticed a surprising lack of 3 year olds who admit to smoking.)
When I am NOT confident sending a patient home, I have them evaluated by a trained crisis worker. The crisis worker usually arranges discharge with a safety plan (rubber stamp) or transfer to a psychiatric facility.
Occasionally, we transfer patients to psychiatric facilities against their will. If I determine that a patient IS an IMMINENT threat (immediate, not two days from now) to self or others, I can hold them against their will. Even then, we can’t take all of the patient’s matchbox cars, pencils, toothpicks, knives, nails, gasoline, bottles, cars, pills, Lysol, raid, ropes, string, explosives, firearms, ammunition and other dangerous substances from the patient’s home. We do try to disarm them while they are in the emergency department.
I am also obligated to let the illinois state police know if the patient is an imminent threat, so they can send him a letter telling him to return his FOID card and surrender all his guns and ammo.
Illinois has one of the most aggressive social justice warrior programs in the United States. I’m not aware of any published literature saying any of it has had statistical benefit. I think it’s reasonable to disallow firearms in the hands of recently hospitalized psychiatric patients, but these patients also tend to be the most victimized group in the country. Can we let them have butter knives? Forks? Spoons?
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I highly recommend the countering a mass shooter book and presentation. I teach it as well.
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Example of suicidal risk evaluation rubric:
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[emphasis mine]
The fact that you can’t put this topic down suggests to me that you may be showing signs of mental illness, specifically obsessive-compulsive disorder. Please check yourself into the nearest center for psychological evaluation, and let us know how that goes.
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Of course, but like prisoners, they, too, could make improvised weapons with those. Can sporks be utilized as weapons? They don’t seem to even work well as implements for food… 
they kicked me out because I was turning the locks on the door so much I wore them out.
Honestly, from my point of view, if they would just enforce and prosecute existing laws so many bad guys would be off the streets. This guy included. Who carries around bags of dead cats??
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A hungry person in search of a place to cook them?
I’ve eaten a lot of different critters, but cat is not one of them.
But I doubt this guy was hungry, just mentally ill. Seems like someone should have said something to someone who should have listened. Just sad.
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In my opinion, the case for mental health screening sounds like a good idea on paper. “Mental health screens will prevent those mentally unstable from using weapons to harm others”. But my concern is the actual execution of it a policy like that.
I think we all can agree on one thing. We want mass shootings to stop and never happen again. The reality of this though is that nothing we do will stop bad people from doing bad things. I live about 20 minutes away from Waukesha, WI and the Christmas parade Massacre resulted in the death of 6 people. If a gun was used, it would have been considered a “mass shooting”.
My issue with mental health screenings is that there are too many variables that can go into a “yes” or “no” decision from the person evaluating. The biggest being are they pro 2A or anti 2A? Are there different levels of depression that make one suitable for a firearm but others not? What about a person who experienced a traumatic event and a few years later no longer suffers from PTSD, who decides when they can again? Does someone who has PTSD not have the same right to defend themselves as I do?
I don’t feel there is always a clear way to determine who is safe and who isn’t and my biggest fear is weaponizing mental health as a way to restrict one’s right to own a firearm and protect themselves.
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I completely agree. But if politicians want to pat themselves on the back for passing yet another law that does the same thing as all the existing laws they are failing to enforce but adds in strong due process protections and restores some of our rights to defend ourselves from these murderers then I’m willing to listen.
NO NO NO… biggest problem with mental evaul is WHO does it and HOW they decide it…
the Soviet Union used something similar to imprison many of their opponents… was all bogus…
such a thing is too opinionated by human beings… the CCP still does it IIRC…
the view point held by the evaluator is the starting point…
A point I rarely see question is the latest school shooting… HOW did he afford those weapons???
Many questionable things are going on with nearly every such shooting…
duplicate photos of same person from different shooting etc… gotta wonder…
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Ditto. I read it in a day. Very useful common sense ways to reduce the risks significantly. $8.99 on kindle!
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I guess I’m just jaded.
As much as I agree and want current laws enforced; Are many other laws, even unrelated to firearms also not enforced as much as they can be?
Not an excuse or complete solution. Just wondering how realistic it is for enforcement to occur, if it’s not even happening in other various crimes per se. IDK.