Should the ownership of guns be banned or restricted?

@BohemianBoo How many remember that the NRA started out as advocates and providers of gun safety classes? Before the gun manufacturers hijacked it as their lobbying wing.

@dancingtongue Even today, most members of the NRA want stricter gun laws. But the owners of the NRA, probably because they're being paid off, refuse to move an inch on gun control.

@BohemianBoo There is no "mental health class", and a 4-hour safety course makes a person exactly no more responsible to use a gun than before walking in the door. Shooting is a muscle memory action; it requires hundreds of hours of training in various situation under different conditions and even then, many professional people can fail a test.

The way to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals is to realize every human is a dangerous individual and most of them shouldn't have guns.

@Graylight I said mental health test, not class. People should have to prove they're not mentally ill before they can own a gun.
And I don't think people need to be professionals, they just have to know enough to not accidentally shoot someone.

@BohemianBoo There is no such thing. There's a simple competency test like Trump took, but that only shows you don't have dementia. There is no "You're good to go" test that can be administered to someone to test their mental capacity. That changes throughout life. in fact, most "mass shooters" or rage shooters have no documented mental health history at all.

But more importantly: If no one wants to consider it at a gunman's trial, don't go blaming the ghost of it for the crime.

That's the point. [i]Even professionals[/i] misfire all the time. All the time. There is no such thing as the "responsible gun owner who won't hurt anyone." Morgues are full of their accidents and victims.

@Graylight There are absolutely tests to tell if a person is mentally ill. And yes, this does change through a person's life. So why not have annual tests to see if someone is still allowed to use a gun, much like with cars. In order to drive, you need to pass an eye test. But it's not a one time thing, because we all know that a person's sight can decrease with age.

@BohemianBoo Name them.

@Graylight https://www.verywellmind.com/is-there-a-mental-illness-test-4587967

@BohemianBoo Wow, quick search and paste. First line:
[quote]There isn’t a single test that can determine if you have a mental illness—or deem you 100% mentally healthy.[/quote]

The screening tests listed in the article are specific diagnostic tools for specific mental disorders, as mentioned in the same article. They are suggested after a person who has detected a mental imbalance seeks help.

Good try, though.

@Graylight Did you think I meant there was like a test that detects every mental illness in the world?

@BohemianBoo [quote]and you should have to pass a mental health test [/quote]

@Graylight Yes, to make sure the person doesn't have a condition that can lead to violence.
Keep in mind, there are lots of mental illnesses that don't cause violence.

@BohemianBoo [i]There is no test for that. [/i]

Incidentally, 2.9% of people with serious mental illness had committed violent acts between 2 and 4 years following the study’s baseline, compared with 0.8% of people with no serious mental illness or substance use disorder.

I meant to disorder most commonly connected to shootings? Substance use disorder. Are we going to take beer away now until we can prove some of these mentally competent to drink it?

Mental health is a ruse, empty rhetoric. If we cared about mental health then Texas would not have got 200 million from their budget before the shootings. But we don't care. We just have a bunch of scared, loud people who want their guns.

(Sources: APA
Richard A. Van Dorn, PhD, RTI International)

@Graylight This is comically bad faith.

@BohemianBoo There's nothing comical about it. Mental health and police response will be the diversions for this latest shooting. Will throw around phrases no one understands or appreciates, nothing will get done because, in fact, the opposite is more often done, and more people will die in the future. All so young guys can carry around 9mm in their glove compartments.

@Graylight Mental health is only used as a diversion when it's used to change the subject away from gun control. I think we should have more gun control, including not allowing someone to buy a gun if they have a mental illness that can make them dangerous. Healthcare, as a whole, should also be more affordable through expansion of the ACA.