BF2S Forums New gun laws introduced in Virginia

Read the last sentence - "This is by no means new gun control legislation," said Burke. "We're just strengthening these laws on the books."

I agree with them but: "Number two, it perpetuates this myth that if someone is sick at a single point in time and they need involuntary care, that somehow that condition lasts forever," said Shern. "We know that the vast majority of people who have mental illness and who would need adequate care get well and do better."

Chris Koyanagi, policy director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, said the new law "will discourage people to come voluntarily for (mental health) services."

There are also fears that full mental histories will end up at the FBI and used for other purposes by federal agencies and their private partners.

"What happens to these lists? Are there going to be tight controls in using this data?" she asked.


This is also a very good point.

Let's see.

Logical? check.

Reasoned? check.

In line with already established procedures and common sense? check.

Not infringing on the rights of legitmate gun owners? check.

My only problem with this proposal is the quote from above: "Number two, it perpetuates this myth that if someone is sick at a single point in time and they need involuntary care, that somehow that condition lasts forever," said Shern. "We know that the vast majority of people who have mental illness and who would need adequate care get well and do better."

As someone who worked in psych for a little while, I did see people who were involuntary commits who would not be a threat as a gun owner. All of the cases that come to my mind were folks that were admitted as the result of an intervention for drug and/or alcohol addiction. Once their problem is overcome, there needs to be a process by which they have the ability to have their record striken from the NCIC system.

Other than that, and controls for who can access the database (as opposed to simply checking records against a list), I think this law makes good sense.