The problem is, do we want to put our gun ownership rights in the hands of shrinks? I’m not saying I agree with that or not, but it will be a point of contention.
Also, the APA has stated that mental illness is not to blame in most cases of mass shootings.
I actually like this idea. You put the power in the hands of those who know you best. We could probably add school principals to the list of folks who can, given the behavior the last few shooters displayed there.
Also, can someone tell me why the local and federal crime databases are so shoddy? A few of the last 10 or so have been guilty of state level crimes that would have precluded purchase, but it wasn’t in the register.
Surely combining that info would be a boon to everyone.
You don’t see them with the same frequency. When you do see it, it is more often a terrorist attack by organized people with a defined agenda. Do we even know what the Vegas shooter’s motivation was?
Maybe they do a better job with dealing with the ugly side of human nature. I don’t know if there is a connection but why are we so damn fat, and in love with cheap, low quality food that doesn’t even taste good, when compared to Europe? We have TV shows dedicated to finding the country’s biggest burger or whatever. It’s an immature way to look at food.
When I look back at people in my family who have died, I really think people in the past were better and all the typical talk from older generations about the newer ones being worse and worse was actually true. Yes, there was racism and bigotry and certain attitudes about women but, those are things a society can grow out of. It’s what’s left when that happens. I think if you were to erase those bad things from the past you would be left with good people. We are erasing those things now but what’s left is people who are worse. You would think as life got easier and we became more tolerant and compassionate, that we would have time to improve ourselves but we do everything we can to avoid self-improvement and keep looking outside of ourselves for things to get mad at.
When a teacher or principal, who probably does know the kid better than his own parents, comes into conflict with a parent about a kid’s behavior, guess who wins.
It would be down to a judge to issue the order though, it may not be relevant that the parents disagree.
I agree that our gun rights should not be in the hands of shrinks, nor any other rights really. For the the sake of due process, what I’m suggesting is multiple shrinks, who have to file documentation with a Judge who specializes in mental health. This would require money to hire more mental health professionals to work in school systems.
No. Look at the list of mass shootings in Europe I’ve linked to. Not even close in orders of magnitude to the US. Especially missing is the peculiarly American school/workplace shooting.
Also, many of those shootings on the list prompted tightening of gun laws in the respective countries, Dunblane being an example.
It’s worth noting that per Small Arms Survey (SAS) there are 93 million firearms in private hands in Europe.
Freedom from tyranny.
The government takes making gun records difficult to search quite seriously. A Government Accountability Office report released last month concluded that in two data systems, the ATF did not always comply with “restrictions prohibiting consolidation or centralization” of records. The GAO, which is tasked with making sure federal agencies follow the law, was essentially chiding the ATF for making it a bit easier for its hundreds of investigators to do their jobs.
Alarmed headlines from conservative publications followed. A Fox News pundit even falsely claimed the report had found that the ATF had “a list of every gun owner and every gun owned.”
Congress imposes conflicting directives on the ATF. The agency is required to trace guns, but it must use inefficient procedures and obsolete technology. Lawmakers in effect tell the agency to do a job but badly.
I’m not disagreeing necessarily, but, there will always be people who will bring up the potential for bias. Also you have the idea that you can be prevented from exercising a right due to what you might do. That opens up a whole new door.
If you’re found to have composed rape and murder lists, you should be viewed as having made a threat of violence. Terroristic or plain old criminal. I don’t care. It’s a threat the rest of us shouldn’t be obligated to wait around and see if you were “just kidding.”
Agreed
But where do we draw the line IRT 1a to create a private list. How do we gauge the intent and seriousness?
no one? Seems to me the kid loses if the parents aren’t going to hear what the teacher/principal has to say.
I get a parent could be defensive but in that scenario they’re letting their emotions cloud their reason. But then again, I’d imagine a parent who doesn’t exhibit rational thinking during an emotional conversation won’t really pass that on to a kid - i.e. their kid’ll most likely exercise emotions over reason as demonstrated by their emotional parent…
I say we take you just as you freely expressed yourself to be. A violent threat. Get the pot smokers and dealers out of prison. Put even a fraction of those resources into tracking domestic terrorists and mentally ill individuals. Use your speech to make a threat of violence and we’ll treat you like a violent individual. A reasonable expectation of violence. I have never had to express the names of people I want to murder or rape to feel free. I have no such list in the first place! I’m just not concerned with the feelings of people who feel the need to. At least when it comes to keeping and bearing arms.
I agree with solidifying the reporting system already in place. Get the systems working fluidly.
You’re correct on both counts, and I am NOT a fan of putting constitutional rights in the hands of shrinks. At least not permanently (lifelong) - nobody should be denied a constitutional right without due process. The difficulty is, any time an oversight like this occurs you will get political views coloring judgement. Again, not saying it’s insurmountable by any means, but it will be a point of contention as you say.
I am much more favorably disposed to working with trained professionals such as psychiatrist than administrators though. I am most certainly not in favor of putting principals in charge of a lifelong prohibition on owning a gun. I have an innate fear of putting such important things in the hands of bureaucrats.
Most of the school staff are not necessarily what we could call the best and brightest… Let’s just be honest here. They serve a vitaly important role, and we need to attract the best in brightest to those rolls. However currently that doesn’t happen on a wide enough scale.
I think we all agree we want safe schools, and elimination of mass shootings. However I’ve met enough idiots in charge of k-12 education that this prospect actually worries me a great deal. I do admit that My personal experience is just mine however.
Yeah, I’m not proposing a lifelong ban on a fundamental right based on a few stupid statements by a troubled teen. Any process that denied that right should also include a process to restore it . Smarter people than myself, acting in good faith should be able to come up with answers that attract people from both sides of the aisle.
Definitely agreed!
It used to be that if a teacher complained to a parent, you were guaranteed a beating. So kids didn’t want their parents called. Now, the first question a parent asks is, “what did you [the teacher] say first?” I am generalizing but there is always this search to place blame on someone else. Who wants to admit their kid is a sociopath?
And there is the biggest problem. Bi-partisanship is dead. You can’t have winners if you don’t have losers.
My wife’s aunt let her son drop out of HS at 16 to pursue his passions in designing Pokemon and creating rap videos for his YT account.
Her words, that are burned into my memory, are “if these shitty teachers can’t motivate my son to want to learn I’m sure as hell not gonna force him to go”
…
If a family member said that to me I would respond, “maybe he’s retarded.” Then wait for the fireworks.