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Originally Posted by TexaninVA
Frankly, I don't trust anybody on anything having to do with guns in the US. What I like about the Australian law is that it limits the kinds of guns--the kind that enable you to shoot many things/people at one time. And also that anyone with a mental problem cannot own a gun. I also like the 28-day waiting period, and the requirement to take gun safety training. I don't believe any of this would be unconstitutional in the US, except in the eyes of certain groups.
These laws came about after a couple of group massacres in the '90s. The government took action and succeeded.
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Power can be abused easily and has been repeatedly in US history. Black activists, for instance, were labeled paranoid schizophrenic. The people in power were after them and had enough power to do something about it. Very recently, the military labeled women who had been abused sexually by officers as people with difficult personalities. The Library of Congress had had a policy which may or may not still be in place of labeling problem employees mentally ill. This was according to a CBS News National report of around July 6, 1996 or thereabouts. I remember when I fought for my right to the pursuit of happiness through seeking employment after my contract with the University of Minnesota Law Library expired and was not being renewed, the Law Library Administration and maybe others in the Law School Administration started in a subtle manner putting my mental health in question over a nine month period of January through September of 1991. They were not trying to help me but were addressing my own problems with their resources available to survivors/victims of crimes. If an advocate does not like what the person is saying because it is true to the facts, unprincipled advocates will use attacks against the person rather than addressing the issue involved.
I do think you have to be very careful with labels like "mentally ill" and who gets to use these.
The CBS News National Report had reported that the Library of Congress's use of this tactic was something borrowed from behind the Iron Curtain. And, I do not mean the USSR of when the Berlin Wall fell but that of Stalin and his ilk. People like Stalin who trample all over human rights in the name of their usually very flawed view of Utopia.
The poor woman who had been a victim of the Library of Congress policy-- which they actually bragged was very effective-- had lost everything like her home and ability to earn a livelihood. Again, this was according to the CBS National News of around July 6, 1996. I would bet that she was quite messed up by this abuse of power.