Watch this video. This video was a public service announcement in the UK, where most guns have already been banned. But, as already said in Bolos and O'Connor's blog, the second amendment of the Bill of Rights states that:
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Although the commas are an interesting topic, I want to blog about the pressing issue of guns in the hands of the mentally ill. Currently there is an act in place to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining guns. It is the Gun Control Act of 1968. The specific part of this act is line 6.
"Under the GCA, firearms possession by certain categories individuals is prohibited:
6. Anyone who has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution"
But this act is not being followed. This morning I read an article titled Hole In Gun Control Law Lets Mentally Ill Through. It talks about a woman, Lisa Duy, who was diagnosed with "paranoid schizophrenia and, only a year before...had been committed to a mental hospital by a judge after threatening to kill an F.B.I. agent." She had also been hearing voices in her head telling her to kill. Now the store that sold her the gun had done a background check before selling her a Smith & Wesson 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol. The search showed no felonies and no history of mental illness.
RESULTS
"Less than two hours after leaving Doug's, on Jan. 14, 1999, Ms. Duy...walked into the studios of television station KSL...and began firing her new weapon. She shot more than four dozen times in all, killing a young mother and wounding the building manager."
WHY
"...laws in most states guard the privacy of the mentally ill, and to protect them from stigma these statutes generally bar law-enforcement agencies from access to mental health records.
As a result, gun background checks of people with psychiatric problems typically fail to turn up their mental health history, a loophole that has contributed to the wave of school and workplace shootings of the last decade. In the 100 cases reviewed by The Times, the vast majority of them from the last 10 years, half the killers were people with a history of serious mental health problems, and at least eight had been involuntarily committed."
As a result, gun background checks of people with psychiatric problems typically fail to turn up their mental health history, a loophole that has contributed to the wave of school and workplace shootings of the last decade. In the 100 cases reviewed by The Times, the vast majority of them from the last 10 years, half the killers were people with a history of serious mental health problems, and at least eight had been involuntarily committed."
MY THOUGHTS
The facts I have presented are clear. States are 'protecting' the mentally ill, and endangering the entire population. The mother of Lisa Duy said in the article, "I don't understand how Lisa could buy a gun." If the states keep their laws, they are overriding this government act. I think that if this issue was actually taken seriously by the government, they would step up and take further actions. This act of 1968 was a good idea. But it's not being taken seriously. I think we should make it a bill and put it through Congress. If the Congress looks at these facts, they can see how logical the Gun Control Act of 1698 is. Other provisions in it include that no one under 18 can buy a gun. States abide by this part of the act, why shouldn't they abide by the whole thing?
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