Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinSE
I agree with most of your post. I would 100% agree with a universal background check that included mental health considerations.
I don’t think mental health is the problem, but it contributes.
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I agree that mental health (behavioral health, to use the more "in" term) should be a consideration, but--just what diagnoses would we include in that "consideration"?
The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) lists over 300 separate diagnoses of possible behavioral health issues, everything from alien hand disorder to Alice in Wonderland syndrome to...whatever, and many of those have levels of severity within each separate diagnosis. In other words it is a slippery slope, one that has to be navigated with extreme care. It would (or should) be preceded by a great deal of education on the issue not only for the legislators who would conceivably be deciding on the issue but also on the part of the people who vote for those legislators.
But politics in America are less and less about knowledge and reason, and more and more about emotion (even hysteria) so I don't hold out much hope for that.