Obama Gun Control Proposals Unveiled, Marking Biggest Legislative Effort In A Generation

[tpsbmam]

75. "Nobody with any sort of psychological problem should ever have access" ???

That would describe pretty much 99% of the population! Now, if you narrow it down to diagnosable psychological problems, that would be more than half the population, frankly, when you add in adjustment disorders, phobias, personality disorders, etc etc. "Psychological problems" means anything -- there are very few people who don't have "psychological problems" of one sort or another, even if they're just the everyday "stuff" that most of us blow past and work through as needed.

The problem is, who decides what "psychological problems" preclude gun ownership? Depression? What level of depression?About 1 of every American 10 teens/adults takes antidepressants. (CDC stats) 23% of women in their 40s and 50s take antidepressants. Should prescribing an antidepressant come with notifying authorities and having to turn in your guns if you own them? Boy, how to make people avoid getting their depression treated -- if it were me, I don't own a gun but I also don't want my name going into some sort of national "mentally ill" database!!! If I were depressed and knew that that's what would happen if I sought treatment, I'd avoid treatment like the plague!

Everyone deserves privacy when it comes to their medical records.....except those with diagnosable "mental illnesses," who then lose their rights and become a separate class of "citizens." Their medical information then become the property of the United States government? Ummmmmm, I have a problem with that.

I, too, am a (retired) professional in the psychology field and I can tell you, this is an incredibly thorny area. Someone who is a danger to self or others must be reported to the appropriate authorities and, if there is specific threat, the person(s) or entity threatened must be notified. That is up to trained professionals to determine. But to somehow classify everyone with a "psychological problem" as unfit for gun ownership is untenable, hugely discriminatory and would set understanding of psychological processes back a century!