Lewiston, Maine shootings leave at least 16 dead - eviltoast
  • magnusrufus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A pretty simple how for that case would be to have a protected database where mental health professionals and institutions would report individuals with issues deemed worryng enough to bar from purchasing a gun. Then during the background check they would reference that db. If the person being checked is verified to be in that db fail the check. Maybe have some revaluation options or whatever but it’s not hard to imagine how reasonable laws that are actually enforced could actually help. The half baked laws that are half assed enforced and then held up as an example of any laws at all being fundamentally impossible just isn’t convincing.

    • Hardeehar@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      This won’t work. Do you want more unmedicated people with guns?

      People with mental health issues wouldn’t ever seek care if owning a firearm was linked to healthcare. Now we’re stigmatizing mental health treatment.

      We want people to get care and be managed so they can live a normal life.

      • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Do you want more unmedicated people with guns?

        If they wanted that, they’d do things like oppose red flag laws, insist background checks remained functionally optional, oppose effective waiting periods and oppose mandatory safe storage laws.

        People with mental health issues wouldn’t ever seek care if owning a firearm was linked to healthcare.

        Is “some people care more about their guns than the safety and mental health of themselves and their family” supposed to be an argument for the existing gun laws?

        Now we’re stigmatizing mental health treatment.

        Who exactly is “we” here?

        The pro-gun community rushes to blame anyone but themselves, all the while seething with indignation that they get lumped in with people who murder their partners or kill as many children as they can, just because they bought the same guns, from the same stores, under the same systems, with the same requirements as the murderer.

        But boy they’re not shy doing unto others.

        Half the world population will experience mental health problems in their lifetime. If the 80% of mass murderers using legally purchased guns is a low enough figure to sweep under the rug, the fraction of a fraction of mentally ill people carrying out mass murders isn’t even a speck of dust.

        This man received urgent mental healthcare, to the standard that modern healthcare can provide anywhere in the world. Then he killed 20 people and injured over a dozen more with his legal firearm.

        If you’re so certain that mental healthcare is the answer, you can give up your guns until you finish building your perfect healthcare utopia. Maybe you could start with the military, since apparently you have to be mentally ill to kill someone with a gun.

        Until then, the current gun laws are horrifically and demonstrably inadequate at keeping guns out of the hands of violent people, despite 25 years of pro-gun cultists insisting that they and they alone have the solutions.

      • magnusrufus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah that’s an issue that I would anticipate as well but at least now we are exploring options and identifying what may or may not work and what the trade offs are rather than pretending that it’s an impossibility like Mario was doing.

      • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Are you sure you’re not confusing him with the previous mass shooter in Maine from 6 months ago?

        I know they’re hard to keep track of when they happen every month but as far as I’ve been able to tell, 2 days ago this man was a “responsible gun owner” who wasn’t disarmed using the red flags laws (that the pro-gun crowd opposes) despite seeking urgent treatment for mental health problems (which the pro-gun crowd insists is the solution).

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Naa this guy should have had his firearms pulled the second he was involuntarily committed. This is a failure of law enforcement once again.