The Topic of Gun Control and How it Relates to Recent Mass Shootings

Obama really fell flat on his face with his failed attempt at more gun laws.

amateur

 

It was dim when it was popular to call the NRA racist. It was dim when multiple bills existed that would further restrict their possessions that are already heavily restricted. Not even sure what you are trying to say, obviously the time to restrict freedoms is gone and public sentiment towards new gun control is back on it's decades long downward trend.

 

I'm talking about mental health checks wouldn't endanger lawful gun owners of keeping their guns. In fact I don't believe the bill was retroactive, so anyone that already had one wasn't in danger of losing it.

The "danger" of losing the guns was pure hype.

 

If a discussion is what you want, you need to be more specific in your posts. "Mental health checks" isn't a term I recall at all being discussed. Most people blame our mental health system for gun violence so any mental health legislation would likely be able to pass today.

 

No, it wouldn't. The NRA is now against it and spoke against it when the idea was brought up for legislation.

The recent bills brought up in congress didn't threaten any lawful gun owners right to own guns.

That's all I'm saying.

 

The NRA doesn't do anything unless it has to do with firearms.

That is your (minority) opinion that experts (like myself) don't agree with.


If the political capitol of the tragedy had been used for things like expansion of mental health care in public institutions, it would have likely passed. Instead, they went after guns engaging in a battle to pass laws that would have prevented nothing, and their efforts resulted in nothing.

Massive failure of Obama and the gun grabbers of both parties.

 

Oh wow they took down my pic. What's the matter - hit too close to home?

 

The NRA supported a bill that specifically lessened restrictions and made it easier for people with mental illness to buy guns. They are all for diagnosing mental illness, but they are opposed to trying to prevent the violence caused by it. Their real interest is just in being able to lay the blame on the mental illness instead of the tools used.

 

Are you talking about this bipartisan bill?

Beyond your non-specific, asinine attack, what I said still holds. The NRA is only interested in guns. If instead of going after guns (in a way that would not have stopped that tragedy) Obama could have done great things for mental health care and treatment.

 

No. I'm talking about the Grassley/Cruz bill. Diagnosing mental health does nothing if you can't use that information to prevent those people from committing violent acts.

It's also that the NRA-backed substitute legislation, which also failed in the Senate, would have made it easier for people with a history of severe mental illness to buy firearms.

Specifically, the NRA supported a bill offered by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) that would have let people who have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals buy guns immediately after their commitment order expired.

Under the Grassley-Cruz bill, "[p]eople recently hospitalized and still recovering from a mental health crisis could go directly from the hospital to a gun store -- and legally buy a firearm," explained a trio of mental health law and policy experts in the D.C. newspaper The Hill. "Guns that were seized at the time of hospitalization would have to be returned."

The three professors -- Columbia University's Paul Appelbaum, University of Virginia's Richard Bonnie and Duke University's Jeffrey Swanson -- argued that this would be dangerous. "The expiration of an involuntary commitment order is often just the starting point in a person's ongoing recovery from an acute episode of a mental disorder," they wrote. "Indeed, attempts at suicide and other acts of violence following hospitalization are most likely to occur shortly after discharge, with the risk diminishing over time."


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/the-nra-s-orwellian-games-on-guns-and-the-mentally-ill