I was diagnosed with Bipolar II last summer, spent 3 weeks in a psychiatric day program.

[HereSince1628]

16. It's not the gun ownership it's the facile baseless fear of the mentally ill

Unrealistic, hyperbolic notions about the violent nature of generic unspecified mentally illness will foile attempts at reasonable consideration of who should be sold guns and will ultimately be used to stigmatize and punish many many times more mentally ill people who represent no increased risk for violence for each one that does. Some insomnia is caused by mental illness, some forms of erectile dysfunction are caused by mental illness.

If you can't distinguish between forms of mental illness then you destroy any and ALL of the slim chance of creating a mental health screening tool that has any chance of being of practical use to detect the truly potentially violent minority of mentally ill that do represent an increased risk to others through the purchase of a gun.

That makes the situation WORSE rather than better for everyone who wants reasonable precautions to be used to keep weapons out of the hands of the small percentage of mentally ill who commit gun violence.


If you can't distinguish between mental illness relative to their increased or not increased risk to commit a violent act you simply expand what might be reasonable concern about a small percentage of people with a rather limited number of mental illnesses to everyone who is diagnosed with a mental illness.

That sort of common aggressive ignorance towards the mentally ill promotes fear among the mentally ill of how they will be treated by persons who are stupidly cruel, but mentally well, who exercise various versions of the following logic...

If the mentally ill can't be trusted with a gun...

then
I can't trust them with a promotion or a job,

then
I can't trust them to interact with my customers or vendors,

then
I can't interact with that co-worker,

then
I can't interact with that member of my congregation,

then
I can't allow that family member near my children.

then
I can't go to that family members home anymore.

then
I can't give that person a ride to the mental health clinic where they are treated