The rush to judgment that every person with “Mental Illness” is unfit to own a gun is wrong.

What’s the definition of “Mental Illness”? There is no accepted definition.

How many kinds or types of “Mental Illness” are there? No answer.

Mental Illness ranges from very slight to acute. Some mental illnesses are almost innocuous.  Many are treatable and some disappear on their own without treatment. Other’s are debilitating but are treatable in a variety of ways.

Every Mentally Ill person is protected from government by the same Constitution and Bill of Rights as every other individual.

How about the altered mindset caused by alcohol? By drugs? By stress that once removed disappears?

How about social situations and laws that increase mental Illness? When people are stigmatized it can affect their ability to function normally until the stressor event is removed.

But government wants more power and passing laws that give them more power over Mentally Ill people they get it. Unfortunately the laws often violate the Constitution.  

What about the laws that protect doctor / patient confidentiality?

Legislation that requires therapists, nurses and other health-care providers to alert state health authorities if they deem a patient is a danger to self or others. That would then allow the state to confiscate the person’s guns.

That in itself violates many parts of the Constitution That wrongly broadens the already unconstitutional confiscation powers. It gives health care workers the duty to violate many parts of the Constitution, powers they do not have and should not be given.

Legislatures do not have the power to delegate law enforcement to health care providers.  

No one wants to be responsible for not doing something that will result in violence but everyone should want to make sure government respects the boundaries and limits put on government.

These are dangerous times but legislatures must act according to the laws and that means respecting and protecting the rights of the mentally ill.

That doesn’t mean we need to ignore the issue of the Rights of the Mentally Ill including their right to own a gun.

 

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