Just a reminder: Most people with mental illness are NOT violent.

[HockeyMom]

48. My daughter (33) is bi-polar

as is her cousin (41). Never, say never. My niece was on drugs as a teenager and tried to run over a homeless man in one of her manic states. Also, tried to commit suicide a couple of times. Back in those days, not much was known about bi-polar. She was hospitalized quite a few times as a teenager, until medication, and the elimination of the drugs and booze, changed her life. Today she is a married mother of 3 teenager girls and nobody would ever know her mental illness.

My own daughter had her bouts of manic and depression during HS. Her depressive state was worse than the manic. She tried to cut her wrists a few times, and finally when she was 21, she checked herself into the hospital where she was diagnosed. My daughter still has her "ups and downs", but manages to be a functioning member of society.

A major point is that neither of them are anywhere near GUNS, and both to this day, say they wouldn't want to be. Neither have been INVOLUNTARILY committed, or ADJUDICATED mentally ill. There is the TECHNICALITY. In many states because of these legalities, they would be free to own guns. Bad, bad, BAD. Even my daughter will tell anyone who asks her that she could not trust HERSELF being around a gun. She says, as in her younger years, she more probably would have killed herself with a gun, but "Better SAFE, than SORRY".