Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
There is. NICS covers this.
But what about someone who has not been professionally diagnosed? Should everyone in the USA submit to a mental exam on a yearly basis? This is what it would take.
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I'm not one to push for 'all or nothing' solutions or say"If it's not perfect I'm not going to bother." Lord, I'd never do anything if that were the case.
What I would push for is enforcing the laws already on the books, put there in an attempt to keep firearms out of the hands of those who have been shown to be unstable. How about an interview and a realistic check into applicable medical records before someone is granted the right to purchase a firearm? True, this is not the perfect filter, but I would expect some sort of competency test.
There may well be a valid argument for seeking out persons with stability issues, but I suspect that sort of screening would fly in the face of rights and freedoms. Even then, I doubt it would 'weed out' those in crisis (job loss, nasty break up, etc.) who suddenly take it in their mind to 'show them'.
Address the problem one step at a time.
Going back to the firearm-automobile analogy, the average driver does not require a vision test annually, and only runs into problems when they come to the attention of the authorities (traffic accident, etc.) Commercial drivers, on the other hand, do have a yearly visual test for renewal of their license.
I can only imagine the bureaucratic SNAFU annual competency tests for continuation of firearm possession (or a drivers license) would cause.
North of the border, we tried the long gun registry.
The waste of money shows what government is best at.
Heck, if it was easy, we would have had the problem fixed long ago.
Les