Good thoughts, DeanRx. I confess I don't hold with any one notion myself; I think it's interestin' to explore da options. I guess I'd lean toward TwoCubDad's approach, since it's more in tune with my conservative views, but let me respond to yours.
I think we have a pretty broad consensus on da mental health side of things here as well. It's interestin' to me that you're willing to dispense with rights to liberty and due process quite so readily.
Those are, after all, very strong Constitutional rights. That havin' been said, I'd be in favor of revamping da approach to mental health care mostly along da lines you suggest. We have to be somewhat cautious about protectin' folks rights to liberty and due process, of course, but as long as we build that in thoughtfully, I'm OK. We've strayed too far da other way. All rights are subject to appropriate regulation and limits for da safety of society.I reckon there should also be a system in place like there is for child abuse, where anyone can make a report on someone they feel has become unsafe/mentally unstable with firearms, and some professionals like teachers, physicians, and firearms instructors should be mandatory reporters.
Da much harder question is how do we pay for that? Perhaps the biggest drive toward dismantling da mental health system was caused by the cost savings states and insurers realized. Addin' to the homeless is a lot cheaper than institutionalization.
I'd be supportive of da relatively low-cost, one-time expenses in terms of school security that yeh mention. Those offer reasonable protection for reasonable cost. Probably a bit of funding for training/coordination between the school folks and the local PD (the way there's training/coordination on fire safety and inspections with da local fire department) is a good notion.
I have a bigger problem with da practicalities of zero-tolerance enforcement/incarceration that yeh propose. While I understand da emotional attractiveness of it, it's very very expensive, and often hard to make work. It's never as easy or clean-cut as yeh portray it, either. Decent folks get tagged for "brandishing" sometimes on technicalities, and I don't reckon we really want to send the family breadwinner up for 5 years for a moment's thoughtlessness. Yeh get a quadruple-whammy on such things, eh? Yeh have to pay for da prosecution, da incarceration, da loss of tax revenue from the fellow who loses his job and probably can't get a good one when he gets out, and da social service support of his family.
If yeh must have a justice system or regulatory response, then license to carry, use, or purchase firearms or ammunition should be graduated like drivers' licenses, with a combination of required education and mentoring at the start for young folks, workin' up to higher classifications with more responsibility. Yeh want to hunt, get trained and licensed for that; yeh want to carry for protection in crowded public places, get trained and licensed for that. That license should be renewed regularly by testing proficiency at da appropriate level, which includes a basic physical/mental health evaluation, same way drivers' licenses or pilots' licenses do. Da license can be suspended or revoked for bein' a doofus, like carryin' when drunk, which offers a lower-tier, less-expensive, regulatory response short of incarceration.
Such a license system would also allow for an independent non-law-enforcement agency to suspend or revoke a license and remove guns after an investigation based on a mandatory reporter callin' in. Same as action to remove children from unsafe environments, eh?
Beavah



Comment