Database of Mentally Ill + Armed Volunteers In Every School=

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The NRA's answer to the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Follow this link to find out what the Globe and Mail had to say about this.

From the editorial, and I quote:
"And what was Mr. LaPierre’s [Wayne LaPierre, second-in-command of the National Rifle Association] answer? To post an armed police officer in every school. To organize communities into what sounds like vigilante teams or militias for children’s protection. To call for an “active national database of the mentally ill.” And to attack the media for what he described as a cover-up of the dangers of violent video games played by children."

From that same editorial:
"An 'active national database' or registry of 'the mentally ill' is a twisted concept. Instead of registering and controlling automatic weapons and handguns, you register and control people. It would cause people to forgo treatment. There is something totalitarian in the suggestion – as if the country were divided into 'the good guys' and 'the mentally ill,' and the state’s role were to protect the former from the latter. There is no such division of humankind. Sometimes even good guys with guns can turn into bad guys with guns."

My turn to speak:
As if we (not just Aspies, but all persons with any problem where psychiatry is the medical specialty responsible) are once again to be put on the same footing as criminals?

I understand this to be tantamount to policing the people as opposed to policing the means. Policing the people closely resembles the activities of a police state (e.g. Chile during the bad old days of General Pinochet, or Poland when it was behind the Iron Curtain). For that reason, I believe that policing the means is the alternative that better protects freedom. If that means gun registries, so be it. If that means banning weapons that are not intended for hunting, so be it.

Thank you so much for ending the masquerade, Mr. LaPierre. I now have every reason to oppose the National Rifle Association to the fullest of my ability.

You sort of have this implication that Asperger's syndrome is classified as a mental illness. It's definitely a neurodevelopmental disorder, but technically it's not classified as a mental illness. If they were to include this type disorder on a national database, then they would also have to include Down syndrome as well as a whole host of other genetic/neurological conditions.

And yes, people with untreated mental illness have the potential to be dangerous, so something needs to be done. No matter what you do, it's going to be ethically questionable to someone. If you look at the background of this Adam Lanza kid, he was seriously effed up and his mother was in complete denial. Taking away that crazy family's freedom to own loads of guns would mean that 18 children would've had the freedom to live to adulthood.

It is not the guns that are the problem. Most people missed in the news, the same day as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a knife slashing in an elementary school in China. Don't forget that an airplane in the 9-11 attack was hi-jacked by a man with a box cutter, it is not the weapon that is the problem. It is the heart that is the problem. We should not be giving more of our liberties away through this tragedy. Allowing the government to have further access to our health records is not a good idea. There are unintended consequences that will result and it is not constitutional. We have a right to privacy unless we harm someone else. It is all very reminiscient of Orwell's "thought police" by taking away liberties before someone has commited a crime. That would be guilty until proven innocent...not right at all. Don't let them brainwash you. Read your constitution, know the law, and be highly educated in what is right and wrong, teach your children these things as well. All of the aspies I know have a high moral code...we don't need lies spread about them. We also have a right to bear arms for our own protection. Giving away all of our liberties to the government is the wrong way to go and will result in tyranny. Above all have courage, stand for what is right...what is right? Our society has turned our back on truth..everyone does what is right in their own eyes, but that doesn't make it right. You need a moral giver- a righteous judge- for there to be morals which our government and constitution are based on. When we turn away from these truths, that is when we suffer, that is when our hearts hardens and we start making wrong choices.

I'm going to have some questions for the NRA about mental health as soon as the media firestorm settles down a little. There are 48 lines (no word wrap) to that press release, and only one is about a mental health database that is not even logistically practical. I suspect it could be a subtle barb at gun registration, but either way it seems to have been thrown at the media like a rock and they don't appear have a plan to pursue it. Personally I don't like 2nd amendment groups getting into mental health policy for the same reason I don't like mental health groups getting into gun laws.

Remember those days when gun-toting NRA supporters used to spew rhetoric about how insane the "Left" was and how Conservative groups claimed the "Liberals" wanted to police you like some sort of all-intrusive "Big Brother?" Remember when Conservative radio hosts would dole out this endless Spiel on how "they" (the "Lefties") want to put everyone into a database (I don't think they make databases big enough to fit over 6 billion people in ) and track your activities, take your rights away and censor your media?

Why does it feel like the "staunch Conservatives" are waffling on their views? Funny, how that leopard sure changed its spots... I guess some organizations are showing their true colors and it took a school full of dead children to do it.

If being an NRA member counts as a mental illness, go for it.

Both Sky News and BBC News have been laughing all over that statement...and the two good fellows who interrupted have practically become heroes over here.

I wonder, how has the statement gone down in American media?

No idea why police would find it offensive:

They're not responsible for your safety
they won't be there to protect you in almost all cases
they're mainly there to apprehend the accused

They're just the facts (I was going to be a police officer until AS put a stop to that, so I'm not biased; I learnt these things in Criminal Justice and by simple logic).

*sigh*

Nobody believes in freedom anymore.