Punishing the Sick

I know that I usually write about what's happening in my life, but something caught my attention that I feel that I need to address.  I heard on the radio yesterday morning that Connecticut lawmakers are trying to prevent people with mental health disorders from owning guns.  After all of the tragic mass shootings where the perpetrator suffered from some form of mental illness, it's not surprising that lawmakers want to try to protect innocent people.  Here's the gist: if you voluntarily admit yourself into a mental health clinic you will be entered onto a government database that will be checked if you ever try to buy a gun, and will prevent you from doing so for five years from the time of admittance.

So why am I writing about this?  Because it's clear to me that no one involved has ever known anyone with a mental illness.  The term "mental illness" is too vague to mean anything.  Eating disorders, addictions, and depression and anxiety are all considered mental illnesses, but I don't think that Conn. lawmakers realize that.  By their accounts, because I had an anxiety attack while having a severe allergic reaction, I am not fit to operate a firearm.  I agree that people who suffer from severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia are probably not fit to handle weapons, but that's not the same thing as someone who is seeking help to overcome their alcoholism.  These lawmakers need to alter the bill to show that.

The biggest issue is that mental health clinics are supposed to be safe places for people who need it to receive help.  It can be a very difficult thing to find the strength of character to even admit to yourself that you have a problem and then to seek treatment; we don't want to make it any more difficult to do that.  Even if you don't care about guns, you'll be labelled as "mentally ill" and (unintentionally) "unfit for a guaranteed freedom" for five years.  Just for wanting to get help.

What should happen with this bill is this:First, differentiate between mental illnesses and recognize that their not all the same.  Second, don't automatically place people on a database for checking themselves into a clinic.  Instead, allow doctors to make that call by requiring them to evaluate each patient in a basic way and vote yes or no on banning them from guns for the specified five years.  With changes like this it turns sufferers of mental illness back into people instead of being accidents waiting to happen.

Since I don't live in Conn., none of this really affects me, but I'm still cheesed-off enough to rant about it.  Perhaps next post will be something that does affect me, like silly food trends.