Wildcat Diva
TGT Addict
- Aug 26, 2016
- 3,040
- 96
There are places in the world where psychiatric evaluation is required prior to owning a gun legally. That might work but it's terribly at odds with the American ideal that the ability to protect ones self, family, community, and country from evil is a basic human right, a right that even people who aren't quite right in the head should continue to have.
(Many thanks to Wildcat Diva in another thread for the education she's been providing me.)
How might we overcome the conflict between those two schools of thought?
I’m glad some comments helped.
There are many reasons why a psych evaluation to preclude gun ownership is worrisome.
Cost is one. Expensive. Who is paying for the evaluation? Are we going to make it to where only people who can afford the evaluation can own a gun? That’s not cool.
Also, a comprehensive mental health evaluation is good for that point in time. Things can change either way over time. Dangerousness isn’t something that stays static. It’s affected by many factors. Also, providing any given diagnosis doesn’t provide a correlation with dangerousness.
I mean, antisocial personality disorder comes to mind, but not everyone with that diagnosis is going to be a dangerous threat to where they need to give up their gun rights.
And who are these experts that we would trust to grant us permission to exercise our rights?
Ugh.