{"id":135900,"date":"2018-02-16T07:28:43","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=135900"},"modified":"2018-02-18T10:46:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-18T17:46:08","slug":"guns-and-nutters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/16\/guns-and-nutters.html","title":{"rendered":"Guns and Nutters"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m all in favor of getting people access to the mental health they need.<\/p>\n

But what if they don’t want it?<\/p>\n

We are, in this country, very sensitive to civil liberties. So in case it hasn’t escaped you, if The Power to Take Away Guns is the first step on the road to tyranny (as we keep being told), then The Power to Commit People To Mental Hospitals is right up there with it. You just have to look around the world and history<\/a> to see that.<\/p>\n

Unless someone has committed a demonstrable crime, it’s very, very hard to force them to start treatment, let alone continue treatment. And, honestly, while that’s sad, I’m not sure it’s the wrong course.<\/p>\n

And let’s not even start with Trump (or his GOP cohorts), who’ve taken to talking a big game about mental health to deflect from the idea of gun restrictions:<\/p>\n

After other mass shootings, Trump has suggested the need for mental health reform. But just this week, for the second year in a row, his budget proposed deep cuts to the nation\u2019s mental health programs and programs meant to help prevent crime in schools and assist them in recovery from tragedies.<\/p>\n

He has also proposed slashing billions of dollars from other social safety nets like Medicaid, which millions of Americans rely on to get mental health treatment, and he\u2019s pushed the repeal of Obamacare, which includes coverage protections for those with mental illness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, of course, when presented with an opportunity to address the idea of potentially mentally ill people getting firearms, he was happy to throw the idea under the bus.<\/p>\n

Policy experts and lawmakers have tried reforming the background check system to include more people, but Trump\u2019s reversal of an Obama-era regulation did the opposite. The rule required the Social Security Administration to report people on disability insurance who had severe mental illness and required someone else to file for them, to the FBI’s background check system to prohibit them from purchasing a gun.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Though that one’s a bit more nuanced, as the issue at hand is not mental illness per se, but violent<\/i> mental illness. Needless to say, though, Trump’s action here was anything but nuanced.)<\/p>\n

There are, as always, no quick and easy answers, and mass shootings of this sort are, themselves, statistical aberrations of the sort that make very poor public policy (as anyone who’s had to take off their shoes at the airport knows too well). But people calling for more proactive treatment of mental illness need to consider the implications of some of the suggestions they are making. And people calling for more care to be available to people with mental illness shouldn’t be implicitly be adding “… if they can afford it” to their policy statements.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nHow the alleged Florida shooter escaped years of warnings – POLITICO<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m all in favor of getting people access to the mental health they need. But what if they don’t want it? We are, in this country, very sensitive to civil liberties. So in case it hasn’t escaped you, if The Power to Take Away Guns is the first step on the road to tyranny (as … Continue reading “Guns and Nutters”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,298,134,358,376,1071],"tags":[1430,1220],"class_list":["post-135900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-guns","category-health-care","category-poor-citizenship","category-taxing-spending","category-trump","tag-mental-health","tag-shooting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/unnamed-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51947,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/25\/whenever-there-is-a-shooting.html","url_meta":{"origin":135900,"position":0},"title":"Whenever there is a shooting","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-15 4:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Can we finally talk about guns?\"\"No, it's not about guns, it's about mental health! These are just crazy people!\"\"Okay, let's talk about mental health spending then.\"\"The only way to protect against crazy people is more guns!\"To be fair, this is not just a Bobby Jindal thing. It's probably not just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/jindal%2Bmental%2Bhealth.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/jindal%2Bmental%2Bhealth.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/jindal%2Bmental%2Bhealth.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31851,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/19\/simple-gun-answers-are-generally-simplistic-gun-answers.html","url_meta":{"origin":135900,"position":1},"title":"Simple gun answers are generally simplistic gun answers","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Dec-12 5:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been thinking a lot about the Connecticut shooting (et al.), but not doing a lot of actually table-pounding posting about it because, aside from inarticulate wails of grief, there's not a lot simple, straightforward, concrete to say to try and fix what caused this. Because, sadly, there is no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/0725-guns-sale-up.jpg_full_6001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/0725-guns-sale-up.jpg_full_6001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/0725-guns-sale-up.jpg_full_6001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31893,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/22\/if-only-we-could-keep-the-crazies-from-getting-guns.html","url_meta":{"origin":135900,"position":2},"title":"If only we could keep the crazies from getting guns","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 22-Dec-12 10:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Except that it's hard to know who the crazies are. And which of the crazies are actually dangerous. And how to distinguish between folks with mental illness and a violently crazy person who's about to steal a relative's weapons and commit mass murder.And, of course, that's a teeny-tiny fraction of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42433,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/07\/guns-guns-guns-guns-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":135900,"position":3},"title":"Guns, guns, guns, guns","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Jun-14 11:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"Ran across the below, and it prompted a flurry of tiny aneurysms. \u00a0If your prime counter-example is a domestic terrorist from almost twenty years go, it seems you're reaching -- especially when the number of people killed by guns in that same time frame is much, much higher.The analogy falls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/BoQai8fIgAAk6n6.png.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41658,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/10\/need-moar-gunz.html","url_meta":{"origin":135900,"position":4},"title":"NEED MOAR GUNZ!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Apr-14 12:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"On intelligent thought experiments and how they get disregarded by folks whose understanding of shooting situations comes from \"The A-Team\".Reshared post from +Les JenkinsI long for the day Jim doesn't have to write another entry in this series. I fear it will not arrive in our lifetimes.\ufeff Bang Bang Crazy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8972,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/14\/vickipedia.html","url_meta":{"origin":135900,"position":5},"title":"Vickipedia","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Mar-06 4:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Vickipedia is a project by someone who obtained an 1888 encyclopedia, and is now transcribing individual entries online on a daily basis. Today's entry? Hysteria. During the fit, the treatment...","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135913,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135900\/revisions\/135913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}