In article ,
Han wrote:

Kurt Ullman wrote in
m:

Don't know the history, but was he mentally unstable to the point of
diagnosis, or was this largely ascertained after the fact.

I believe his ex had an order of protection against him. Lot of good
that did, if they let him keep a firearm.

Assuming facts not in evidence. An order of protection is generally
seen on the dbs people would be looking at. In fact in many states
(possibly all) being involved in domestic violence automatically means
you can't carry a gun. Had a cop in Indiana recently lose his job for
that very reason.
Did he have the firearm before? Did he even buy it legally. Get a
kick out of people saying so and so shouldn't have a gun only to find
out that they got illegally. The cities with worst homicide rates tend
to be the ones with the strictest gun laws. I am not pointing out this
as cause and effect as much as try enforcing the laws we got now.
There is also a supposition that anybody that shoots people is
mentally ill. The chances are real good that he wasn't mentally ill from
a legal standpoint or a medical standpoint.
As I like to point out, the biggest gaping hole in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Illness is the lack of diagnostic criteria
for Chronic Undifferentiated a**hole.

I always get a kick out of trying to keep guns out of the hands of
the mentally ill since the privacy statutes on mental illness are so
strict, that their illness won't show up on any of the usable
databases. Even the civil court records on Emergency Detentions and
commitments are usually sealed.

Fair enough to point out the difficulties with current rules. But does
that mean everyone needs to arm themselves to the teeth to provide
protectioon against the few who shouldn't have guns in the first place?

I would argue this not even remotely relevant. A little bit of
hyperbole on a sunny Wednesday morning.


The attorneys for the hospital I worked for went toe-to-toe with
the Secret Service (and won) because the person threatening the
president hadn't signed a release of information and so we couldn't
even acknowledge they were on the unit without a warrant (or maybe
subpoena, by that time I was mostly a mildly amused observer-grin)

Same again. Don't get me wrong, I am in favor of the SS having weapons
to protect our elected officials.

This was less of a suggestion that SS should not have weapons as a
comment on the strictness of mental health privacy rules.

--
People thought cybersex was a safe alternative,
until patients started presenting with sexually
acquired carpal tunnel syndrome.-Howard Berkowitz