Opinion Murica would be safer if they start introducing psychological tests before you can buy a gun

[EGarrett]

Terrorists going on mass shooting sprees.

It's not a problem, and blocking people from getting access to guns doesn't reduce the gun homicides that do happen.

Gun murders haven't gone up, they've been trending downward for years. What has gone up is the media coverage of the gun murders that do happen, as the unprecedented number of news outlets in the social media age must desperately compete to get you to click their articles, and thus latch on en masse to anything violent or dramatic to do so.

 

[ultramanhyata]

Sorry psychological has too many syllables, the alt right won't understand it and will instead bash you for threatening their precious guns.

"I would rather see one madman shoot 20 innocent people than potentially deny 20 innocent people the right to purchase a firearm in order to keep a gun out of the hands of one madman." - Wayne LePierre

Spoiler

Not to be confused with Wayne LaPierre of the NRA. Wayne LePierre is not as big a gun nutter.

 

[CWMMA]

Waste of time. And sounds like a fucking nightmare.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

America would be safer if every motor vehicle had an interlock device. Wonder which would save more lives.

Why not both?

 

[M3t4tr0n]

If you tell an average American about scrapping the 2nd amendment they will go apeshit. So we dont want to do that.

What instead should be done, is psychological tests measuring mental capabilities each individual owning a gun. Not just initially but every so often, 5 or 10 years. You dont get a sane person to come out and shoot everyone 'just because'.

Surely, this method wont prevent occurrences like that but it definitely greatly reduce it.

How about every 2 years?

 

[zebby23]

America would be safer if every motor vehicle had an interlock device. Wonder which would save more lives.

That didn’t take long

 

[tehJameson]

Why not both?

That's just too much to ask for.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

That didn’t take long

Bu bu but!

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Why not both?

You could try, but one's a Constitutionally enumerated right and the other is regarded as a privilege. So let's get cracking on those interlocks. Low-hanging fruit, right? The goal is saving lives? Not just rationalizing the disarming of the citizenry?

That didn’t take long

Questioning motives and exposing hypocrisy should wait until page 2 or 3?

 

[Islam Imamate]

If you tell an average American about scrapping the 2nd amendment they will go apeshit. So we dont want to do that.

What instead should be done, is psychological tests measuring mental capabilities each individual owning a gun. Not just initially but every so often, 5 or 10 years. You dont get a sane person to come out and shoot everyone 'just because'.

Surely, this method wont prevent occurrences like that but it definitely greatly reduce it.

If you make it contingent on a psychological test you're going to incentivize would-be gun owners to deal dishonestly with the psychologists so as to ensure he gets his gun.

What we should do is expand access to mental healthcare in general, particular through public schools IMO. There are other problems associated with youth that can be addressed that way as well, stuff as serious as drug addiction and child abuse to more mundane problems like safe sex or depression or anxiety. And you pick it up early too.

Be much safer if you had to pass certain standards to vote. The founding fathers would turn over in their graves at universal suffrage.

Many would at emancipation as well.

 

[Dolomite]

Imagine how much safer we'd all be if every vehicle on the road had an 8-inch dagger sticking out of the steering wheel, pointed right at one's heart.


ETA: & then I read the whole thread and I see that my comment is virtually identical to Cubo's, so - oops.

 

[ObamaPhoneLady]

Of all the suggested gun control measures, mental competency testing is the one that makes the most sense to me but it should also apply to getting a drivers license and having kids as well as getting certain types of jobs.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Of all the suggested gun control measures, mental competency testing is the one that makes the most sense to me but it should also apply to getting a drivers license and having kids as well as getting certain types of jobs.

Funny because I'm the opposite, its the one that worries me the most. People seem to underestimate just how common mental illness is. Something like 50% of the population will at some point in their lives experience some form of mental illness and if you exclude seniors its still 25%. Not to mention it can make people less likely to seek mental health if they think it means they might not be able to own a gun in the future.

 

[helltoupee]

Of all the suggested gun control measures, mental competency testing is the one that makes the most sense to me but it should also apply to getting a drivers license and having kids as well as getting certain types of jobs.

Jobs like President of the United States of America?

 

[helltoupee]

Funny because I'm the opposite, its the one that worries me the most. People seem to underestimate just how common mental illness is. Something like 50% of the population will at some point in their lives experience some form of mental illness and if you exclude seniors its still 25%. Not to mention it can make people less likely to seek mental health if they think it means they might not be able to own a gun in the future.

How much of that is real mental illness, and a doctor just offering a diagnosis to pad his pocketbook? I don't know, to me, it's a real problem trusting those numbers when a doctor or healthcare organization's #1 concern is profit.

 

[Islam Imamate]

How much of that is real mental illness, and a doctor just offering a diagnosis to pad his pocketbook? I don't know, to me, it's a real problem trusting those numbers when a doctor or healthcare organization's #1 concern is profit.

If anything that's just another reason not to support psychological testing for gun ownership. I'm not quite as skeptical of it as you seem to be but I will say skepticism here is not unwarranted, psychology is a young science and its far from perfect.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

You could try, but one's a Constitutionally enumerated right and the other is regarded as a privilege. So let's get cracking on those interlocks. Low-hanging fruit, right? The goal is saving lives? Not just rationalizing the disarming of the citizenry?




Questioning motives and exposing hypocrisy should wait until page 2 or 3?

Who said disarm the citizenry? The OP is talking about a psychological test measuring mental health capabilities in regards to gun ownership. Talk about paranoid

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Who said disarm the citizenry? The OP is talking about a psychological test measuring mental health capabilities in regards to gun ownership. Talk about paranoid

So these psych tests aren't intended to prevent (who knows which) folks from exercising their Constitutional right? Or do they "fail" and get the gun anyway?

 

[Squarechoke]

America would be safer if every motor vehicle had an interlock device. Wonder which would save more lives.

One of those suggestions would cripple the US, the other wouldn't change anything relevant. You made about as poor of a comparison as you possibly could have.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

So these psych tests aren't intended to prevent (who knows which) folks from exercising their Constitutional right? Or do they "fail" and get the gun anyway?

Let's go back to the fact you keep falsely claiming that people who suggest a psych test are actually trying to ban guns. Why are you doing that? Also if you are scared of taking a psych test then what is your suggestion? More guns? Thoughts and prayers?