White House weighs broad gun-control agenda in wake of Newtown shootings

[primavera]

196. No worries, I've got that one covered

The term could simply be defined by the statute. If you want a gun, you're clearly suffering symptoms of: acute anxiety disorder; paranoid feelings of persecution by an imaginary hostile world in which everyone is out to get you; delusions that having a gun will make you and others around you safer; and sociopathic disregard for the countless innocent victims of the weapons you're trying to obtain and the spaghetti western culture you're endeavoring to promote. Ergo, you're way too crazy to have a gun.

No, seriously, you make a good point. But I'm not sure that not being allowed to have a firearm constitutes a stigma disproportionate to the benefit of keeping guns out of the hands of those lacking the emotional stability to own and use them safely. If I have epilepsy, for instance, I'm not allowed to drive a motor vehicle until such time that I can prove that I am on medication and that taking medication has made me seizure free for a sustained period of time and I therefore do not pose a threat to other drivers on the roads. As far as I'm concerned, that's a perfectly reasonable constraint. My freedoms and liberties do not extend so far as to give me a right to harm others or place them in undue jeopardy. If there's a significant chance that I will have a seizure while driving, lose control of my vehicle, and run over a bunch of people, such hazardous, impaired driving is not a "right" I have, nor should it be. I'm not suggesting that anyone who has ever been diagnosed with a mental illness be precluded from owning a gun, only that the burden of proof shift so that the mentally ill person demonstrate that their condition is under control and does not affect their ability to safely and responsibly own and use a firearm.

As for your assertion that none of the measures proposed will reduce mass shootings, I'm afraid we'll simply have to agree to disagree on that point.