Quote:
Originally Posted by kittygilchrist
I worked in an institutional hospital in Florida which housed individuals identified through the court system as insane and therefore incompetent to proceed to trial. Most of them were paranoid schizophrenics. When the disorder is exacerbating, it is not a difficult diagnosis to make and at the same time not easy to fake.
Trust me when I say these people were not responsible for their crimes. Typically they had perpetrated what in their mind was either a first strike assault/murder to avoid a perceived coming attack, or their voices were telling them that they were on a special assignment from god to eradicate someone evil.
I wish professionals working in law enforcement and schools knew the age of onset and how to determine whether individuals with mental health symptoms in high school, college and the armed services who might have such a problem. These people have symptoms easily recognizable to someone who knows how to interview.
Very commonly shooters who go on a rampage have already come the attention of law enforcement or mental health providers who lack adequate training for needed screening.
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I'm going to try to make this brief, which is difficult for me.
Kitty is correct that it is often easy to identify potentially dangerous mentally ill people. When I was training in this area I was amazed to find how many of the mentally ill would readily admit that they heard voices in their head instructing them to do things when there was no other person present.
Years ago Liberal Activists destroyed the nation's mental health system of compulsory detention of potentially dangerous mentally ill people. Those people are now "the homeless" on our streets who refuse free refuge when it is offered.
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Now, back to the Original Post. No, you can't require a psychological exam prior to purchase of a firearm. A psychological exam is a medical procedure and HIPAA law forbids disclosure of the results.
The great obstacle we are presently encountering is the difficulty in establishing a database of people found to be "mentally defective" which disqualifies them from purchasing a firearm.
Frankly, the medical establishment refuses to cooperate.
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