Should people with Aspergers be able to own guns?

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This question has bugged my mind, and I feel I should ask the biggest comunity.

Should people over the age of 18 with Aspergers Syndrome be able to own guns?

I attempted to get my licence, although the police denied me mine for having Aspergers (Mind you, two things would have to be taken into account, one is the fact I'm in Australia, where every gun is a "highly-lethal-assault-killing-sniping-machine-gun". Two is the fact that whilst my application was being considered, the Virginia Tech shootings happened and they most likely based it on the fact that the shooter had Autism).

I have an entirely clean police record, no marks or fights, as one of the most timid people in my family, although a few years ago, they allowed a sex offender to buy a rifle here, so who knows what's going on behind the scenes at the police station.

how did they know you have Asperger's? And how would Asperger's be grounds to deny you a gun? That seems unreasonable.

When applying for a licence, they ask that you truthfilly fill the form out.

They state "Do you suffer from any mental illness?".

Ah, now here's where my mother and I got confused, as she's a nurse, I asked her whether she'd classify me as mentally ill. She said Aspergers in her opinion isn't really mental illness, however, the police do have on record from my doctors, the fact that I have been diagnosed with it, so I wrote "MILD ASPERGERS SYNDROME".

The police can deny you a licence for whatever reason they want to be honest, not in a bias way, but I also see it from their point. Guns here in Australia are a pretty strong issue, and so much as buying a plastic pistol at the toy shop has the cops asking about your location etc so they can make sure you're not going to do anything "bad" with it.

Still, that didn't stop me from owning some guns (Mind you, these have all been legally purchased and registered, except under a collectors licence. I can own most guns but I can't buy ammo or shoot them, which is fair enough. To be honest, I enjoy just playing around with them, modelling them (see my site in my signature), etc).

For those who don't know about Australian gun laws, see my info brochure below.

link to gun diagram

Ooookay, where the hell didja get that?

I made it, although I sourced the pictures from google images. I thiiink I left the damn thing a bit too big.

Still, it amused many of the gun-culture folk who know exactly how the media classify firearms here.

Do the police in Australia have a record of everyone diagnosed with Asperger's or is there a reason they have your diagnosis specifically?

I don't think Asperger's is a mental illness. It's a psychological syndrome.

One of my doctors, I forgot the rank, but I know he would be the one who would perscribe medications and such, although I've been off them most of my life, diagnosed me with Aspergers, and it went onto some medical record.

Alex is wrong. That is ******TOTALLY******* unreasonable!

Heck, I have a number of traits that are apparently COMMON in AS! You sound like YOU have them ALSO! I am less likely to get into fights, more likely to try to avoid them at ANY cost, less likely to be angry, less likely to use force, and a gun would be nearly a LAST RESORT! I didn't use them in school, where some kids probably would have DESERVED it, and they may even have been shot dead since. Why would I NOW? Did I mention that, even at 6yo, I had access to guns and ammo!?!? I don't know if my mother really knew, but my friend(that we were staying with) DID! He even showed me everything, and let me use them for target practice. He EVEN gave me a 2 BARREL SHOTGUN that I kept in my bedroom. I never used it with both barrels loaded though.

BTW I don't have a police record. Because I tried selling term insurance, and securities, my fingerprints ARE on file with the FBI(It is a requirement to get either license), so I don't dare try to commit such a felony. If they were going to deny me a gun, and be reasonable, they would have to deny EVERYONE a gun! I doubt ANYONE is less likely to use it to hurt a person.

They were PROBABLY IDIOTS that saw you as crazy because you had a psychiatric diagnosis. You're right. The virginia shooting didn't help.

Aye to that.

I mean, all the Aspergers people I have met so far, have NEVER been violent. I don't even stand up for myself when someone threatens to kill me with a wrench over my head (Loong backstory, not gonna revisit) like most people would, and I hate having it as a weakness.

I wouldn't see the harm, as a matter of fact, I don't even WANT to shoot guns, I just enjoy collecting and playing with firearms (replicas and deactivated ones, where there's NO harm. The absolute WORST could be a hold up at a shop! But I wouldn't be able to actually shoot anyone, yet the police see such large harm in me owning replicas.).

So yeah, you reckon we should be ok to own guns? I might even make a poll someday and apply it here to fight for ownership.

I have a gun and I'm an American. I think those with AS should ask themselves if they should have one. There are several issues with those of us who have Aspergers that might make us a bad candidate to owning a gun.
1. A lot of us have a difficult time recognizing faces. Me might mistake someone for being an intruder when it is a family member trying to get us out of our burning house.
2. I have night terrors and sleep walk. A lot of us with AS do.
3. We get overloaded with new stimuli. We could accidently overreact to something minor entering our environments.
5. We have poor executive functioning. We don't take all variables into consideration. Again we could overreact.
6. A lot of us get depressed (very depressed).
7. We have a horrible time socializing. We might take our frustration out at work (but this is an indivdual thing).

Of COURSE people with AS should be able to own guns. Geez, I can't believe they'd single someone out like that.

And was that shooter guy even on the ASD? Even if he was, that probably had nothing to do with the shootings.

Considering people with AS are significantly more likely to follow every rule to the T than NT"s I think it would be better to only allow people with AS to have guns.

Why the hell not? They shoved an M-16 in my hand, they didn't seem to mind.

But what about people who, while generally wanting to follow rules, also need a logical reason to do so, and have an unwillingness to follow arbitrary or stupid rules?