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Originally Posted by Jeremy
Ummmm, if someone is Not Guilty by reason of insanity, how can they go on to a criminal database (assuming it's only for people who've actually been convicted)?
Far more sensible to either have a separate LoonyTunes DB to check, or make people take a full psych eval before purchase.
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Fair point, Jeremy. Not a popular one, but an accurate one.
However, if people with "severe mental illnesses" are disqualified from the ability to purchase firearms, the sellers of firearms have to have the ability to find out if their potential customer suffer from "severe mental illness" somehow. The only option is a database that can be checked. (I imagine selling a gun to a known crazy who then shoots people can result in one nice lawsuit against the gun seller.)
Advocates for the mentally ill are more afraid of the misuse of such a database, I imagine. Also, knowing that you're going to be put in a database could prevent a lot of "voluntary" committments from people seeking help; or "involuntary" committments by family members who will fear that if the person gets the help they need, they'll never find employment again with their name in a database.
Keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill is a very good idea, as the case given in the article more than proves. It's also federal law. Now...how to do it?