Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinSE
I will go one step further, restricting any rights to anyone with a mental illness is the very definition of a slippery slope. Who gets to decide. And what is mental illness?
And every time the Administration changes parties we get another swing in "rights".
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I was rooting around in google trying to see if background checks include events from when a person was a minor. No luck with that search so far. I was wondering because it seemed to me that running a background check on someone 2 days over 18 was pretty pointless unless the check includes events going back to the person's minor years. Anyway, I did see this:
"The NICS has conducted more than 300 million checks since launching in 1998, leading to over 3 million denials.
The following groups are currently prohibited from owning guns:
Convicted felons
People under federal domestic restraining orders
People convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes against victims they have been married to, lived with, or had a child with
People committed to a mental-health facility, or a court ruled were mentally unfit
Fugitives
People convicted of drug crimes or determined to by a court to be addicted to an illegal controlled substance"
The devil, of course, is in the details. For example, the domestic violence check seems to be fine with someone beating the crap out of their girlfriend or boyfriend, just not their wife or husband.
Also, the Mental Health category is very squishy with poor record keeping and reporting.
It appears that much of the infrastructure is in place to block sales to mentally ill individuals, it's just not being executed very well. Plus, my initial point holds. It's unlikely that the most crazy, homicidal maniac would have a record in the database if they are only 18 by 2 days!
Personally, I think applicants should have to prove they are not mentally ill, rather than the other way round as it is today. Mass Killing is mostly a one and done type of crime, as the perp usually takes the cowards way out or lets the cops do it for him/her.