On Sun, 12 Aug 2012 08:04:04 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Aug 12, 9:58*am, "
wrote:

Here is an example of a real problem in the area
of regulation, but I don't know what the solution, if
any is. Perhaps the libs can figure it out.

Currently if you purchase a firearm, the dealer
must run your ID through the federal govt's database,
NICS. Presumably that database contains all felons who
cannot legally buy a gun. What other names it has
beyond criminals, is not clear to me. But presumably
it would have names from say court orders, barring
a person from owning a gun for some reason.
I think it's also supposed to have those committed
to mental institutions by courts, but from what I've
seen because state records are such a mess, that
data may or may not get in there.

What that database does not have are people
who are nuts, but have not been committed by a
court to a mental institution. And health records
are covered by strict privacy laws. So, you have
paranoid schizophrenics under the care of a
shrink, who can go out and buy any gun they
choose without showing up on any list. So,
seems like a big loophole. It seems recent
experience has been that it's never someone
who has been committed, but may be someone
who has or is receiving psychiatric treatment,
like the Colorado shooter.

The question is, what can or should be done
about it? Require any healthcare provider to
report all their patients receiving mental health
treatment? Require them to report
the ones they think MIGHT be dangerous?
There are obviously huge problems with
the latter too, like what is enough to constitute
them being reported?

And then what? If their name went on a list,
it would prevent them from buying more guns,
but what about the ones they may already own?
Police could be notified via the healthcare
worker reporting and they could see if the
person had any permits they had applied for
in the past. But, in may states, no permit
is even needed to buy a gun, so it's easy
to have guns without the cops knowing. They
could also have a gun handed down from
a father, received as a gift, etc.
So, now what? Should the
police search every reported persons house
for guns? Are those in favor of more gun
control OK with this?

And once you institute that type of system,
what does it do to discourage people from
going to get the very treatment they need?


There are risks to living in a free society. We can look to different
states and other countries and see that there is no relationship
between gun violence and gun ownership by "normal people". What we
can also see is that because of PC thinking, we can't rationally
discuss the FACT that most gun violence is perpetrated by people with
a culture of entitlement, laziness, criminality. Instead of rounding
up the people in these urban cesspools and putting them behind bars,
we allow them to continue to celebrate their "culture" and pop out
kids they can't afford and won't properly care for. The PC crowd got
their wishes and we now have an endless cycle of poverty and crime
that's a cancer in most large cities. We have a media that rarely
reports the truth and believes that "fairness" consists of giving
equal time to people who have factual info and those who are nothing
but emotionally driven blowhards who don't know the first thing about
guns.