Mental Health Stigma-Anti-Gunners making it worse

This is completely disgusting.

So now the government will be intruding into the therapeutic relationship (supposed to be privileged and protected by law) without probable cause so that they can label people as "prohibited" What the heck is THAT supposed to mean, or even accomplish? And why shouldn't those with mental illnesses that are well-controlled be allowed to own a gun? Maybe their involvement with hunting or shooting could be a positive thing to incorporate in their lives and better their mental health...but it sounds like the extremists in our government wouldn't care. I'd like to think that providers weren't stupid, and would know when to reasonably break confidentiality when the client poses a potential treat to himself or herself or another person. Why does the government have to intrude into our business like this?

Sick, sick, SICK!

I've already contacted NAMI. I hope the "gun angle" doesn't blind them to the real dangers of this bill.

Please discuss this LOUDLY with your classmates/prof(s) and professional associates.

Good thing my wife's Provider is Jewish, eh?

Here's the JPFO take:


JPFO ALERT: EXPLOITING A TRAGEDY

The gun-prohibitionists are taking full advantage of last weeks' horrific killings at Virginia Tech University to push more "gun-control" legislation in the form of HR 297, The NICS Improvement Act of 2007. Introduced back in January by Representative Carolyn McCarthy (aka the "Queen of Gun Control"), HR 297 is intended among other things to dangerously broaden the definition of "mental illness" for the purpose of denying firearms purchases.

Section (102)(c)(3) states:

"The State shall make available to the Attorney General ...
the name and other relevant identifying information of persons adjudicated as mentally defective or those committed to mental institutions to assist the Attorney General in enforcing section 922(g)(4) of title 18, United States Code."

Can you imagine? ANYONE who has been to a mental institution or "adjudicated as mentally defective" would have their name and identifying information sent to the federal government.

It doesn't matter if you needed assistance coping with the devastating loss of a loved one or war-related post- traumatic stress disorder. It doesn't matter if you only stayed for a night because a spouse was worried about you.

Regardless of circumstances, your information would be still be submitted and you would no longer be permitted to purchase a firearm.

The NRA is unabashedly enthusiastic about HR 297. They cheerfully assure us that the bill is designed to "fix problems" with recordkeeping while improving the availability of criminal history and "other" records for conducting background checks. ( www.nra-ila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=197 )

Perhaps they should consider the words of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who said, "You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered."

As an educational organization, JPFO is not permitted to have a particular stance on this or any other legislation.

But we do know flawed logic when we see it. So does Gun Owners of America, who calls HR 297 a "bureaucratic fishing expedition into your private records, including your financial, employment, and hospital records." ( www.gunowners.org/a042307.htm )

In theory, if you were found not to have a mental illness, your name could be removed from the list. But in this day and age of such pyschiatric diagnoses as "Oppositional Defiance Disorder" and "Caffeine Dependence Syndrome", what's the likelihood of escaping without such a label?

The unintended consequences are obvious to any thinking person. As a result of HR 297, more people who do need mental help will avoid getting it. Fearing the consequent loss of their rights, individuals will refuse to visit a therapist or mental facility, and will therefore be MORE likely to "snap" when the pressure becomes too great to bear.

In one fell swoop, HR 297 will totally negate the decades of progress that have been made in de-stigmatizing mental therapy, while increasing the likelihood of repeating last Monday's slaughter.

Naturally, like any other "gun control" legislation, HR 297 would be enforced by the BATFE, giving them even more power to harrass and intimidate gun owners and dealers.

Way to go, Rep. McCarthy.

- The Liberty Crew

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I had to rewrite the JPFO article to fully emphasize the depth of the problem. HR 297 is NOT just about guns.

HR 297 literally begins the American Shoah… and every Rabbi & Survivor needs to be made to understand.

This was sent to a couple of Jewish Organizations I am tangentially involved with...

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Just what did we fight WWII to stop? Sure, we fought it to stop a Mad Man from taking over all of Europe, but we also fought it to disavow the noxious principle of singling out a group of innocent people and making them, and their families, “prohibited persons”.

How soon we forget the lessons of the Shoah, because it looks like the idea that there can be “prohibited persons” is alive and well enough in the halls of Congress that I may just have to get my forearm tattoo.

Not content to try to ban virtually all firearms with HR-1022, or opportunistically dance on the graves of the Virginia Tech dead with HR-1859, dictators-in-training McCarthy and Dingell have introduced a McCarthyesque bill (Joe would be proud) to compile and maintain information on every person in America - to determine whether or not they are “prohibited persons”. When did we see this happen last?

Introduced back in January by Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D), HR 297 is intended among other things to dangerously broaden the definition of "mental illness".

Section (102)(c)(3) states:

"The State shall make available to the Attorney General ... the name and other relevant identifying information of persons adjudicated as mentally defective or those committed to mental institutions to assist the Attorney General in enforcing section 922(g)(4) of title 18, United States Code."

Can you imagine? ANYONE who has been to a mental institution or "adjudicated as mentally defective" would have their name and identifying information sent to the federal government - to be held in perpetuity and used however any current or future "Justice Department" sees fit.

It doesn't matter if you needed assistance coping with the devastating loss of a loved one or war-related post- traumatic stress disorder. It doesn't matter if you only stayed for a night because a spouse was worried about you, or you had Post Partum depression.

Regardless of circumstances, your information would be still be submitted and you would become a "prohibited person" - prohibited from whatever the US Department of Justice deems inappropriate for the "Mentally Ill". You would be Marked.

In theory, if you were found not to have a mental illness, your name could be removed from the list. But in this day and age of such psychiatric diagnoses as "Oppositional Defiance Disorder" and "Caffeine Dependence Syndrome", what's the likelihood of escaping without such a label? Once a family member is designated as a “prohibited person”, the entire family (in community property states) will become, by simple proximity, “prohibited persons” as well. If one person in a household is “prohibited from possessing”, everyone in the household is. Guilt by Association – a new American Tradition, built from German Parts.

The unintended consequences are obvious to any thinking person. As a result of HR 297, more people who really do need mental help will avoid getting it. Fearing the consequent loss of their rights, individuals will refuse to visit a therapist or mental facility, and will therefore be untreated and MORE likely to become a danger to themselves or others.

In one fell swoop, HR 297 will totally negate the decades of progress that have been made in de-stigmatizing mental therapy, while increasing the likelihood of repeating a Virginia Tech style slaughter – officially eliminate the heretofore argued “right to privacy” enjoyed by all innocent citizens, and establish an American “Judenschwein”, ready to be “corrected” for simply being.

People with a Diagnosis will forever be labeled as "undesirable" in the US legal system, and with more and more employers using DOJ data when doing background checks, it will be more and more difficult for even a stable, treated person to get a job... and the income/insurance necessary to remain treated.

Partisans like Charles Schumer will claim this is only about “controlling guns” – but that has never, and will never, work. So it looks like they are going to ban people.

My Wife is BiPolar. Is it time to dig out a big yellow star, or M4…? I know which I will choose.