{"id":66133,"date":"2021-03-24T08:20:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T14:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=66133"},"modified":"2021-03-24T08:20:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T14:20:37","slug":"66133","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=66133","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Most Mass Shooters, Including Those With Mental Illness, Obtained Their Firearms After Passing A Background Check. Expanding Background Checks Won\u2019t Stop Them.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are realities about gun control and the mentally ill that gun control advocates ignore.<\/p>\n

The first reality is that the best that any gun control law can do is force buyers into the black market.\u00a0 While this is a worthy goal, if laws against gun trafficking are not enforced, prohibited persons \u2014 including the severely mentally ill \u2014 will still be able to purchase firearms.<\/p>\n

The second reality is that gun laws do not exist in isolation.\u00a0 They are dependent upon the enforcement of other laws and the proper functioning of our legal and mental health systems.\u00a0 This post will focus upon the issue of mental health treatment and how it impacts the background check system.<\/p>\n

\"\"As this is written we are just learning some details about the King Soopers shooting in Boulder Colorado.\u00a0 That said, I could have predicted the news before it was reported: The alleged mass murderer had a long history of mental illness (possibly undiagnosed) and had multiple contacts with police.\u00a0 I will predict now that we will soon learn that this man passed a background check.\u00a0 This is easy to predict because we have seen it happen over and over again.\u00a0\u00a0Expanding background checks to private sales will not help when the severely mentally ill can pass them!<\/p>\n

How can this possibly happen?\u00a0 Well, as a former paramedic with 10 years EMS experience I know the answer: The mental health system – not gun laws – failed.\u00a0 This happens at two levels:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"The first level is field mental health.\u00a0\u00a0In most states, police are responsible for sending in people who are \u201cacting out\u201d and appear to be unable to care for themselves, or are a danger to themselves or others, to mental health facilities for emergency evaluation (in CA this is done ia a 5150 hold).\u00a0 Cops struggle with this responsibility, because they are not experts on mental heath.\u00a0 I know how this works because I transported literally thousands of such people on holds.\u00a0\u00a0Yet in the wake of mass shootings we learn that police were called because of their bizarre or threatening behavior and the law enforcement officers did not commit them for evaluation.\u00a0 In the case of the Giffords shooter, this happened over 20 times \u2014 yet he was not sent in for evaluation even once.\u00a0\u00a0Every one of these incidents was a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"\"The second level is our actual mental health care system.\u00a0\u00a0When these severely and potentially dangerously mentally ill persons are sent in for evaluation against their will, they have to actually get some help and be reported to the background check system.\u00a0\u00a0Sadly, this simply does not happen the vast majority of the time due to lack of resources (see graphic at left).\u00a0 When I transported people for evaluation, the most common outcome was that the were released within hours with a bottle of pills (often dangerous in overdose) and maybe a follow-up appointment.\u00a0 It was not uncommon for us to transport the same person multiple times in a single week or even shift.\u00a0 They frequently overdosed on the very pills they were given on their first trip to the mental health emergency room.\u00a0\u00a0If we are going to actually reduce these incidents of mass murder by the severely mentally ill, this has to change.<\/p>\n

Currently, in order for a person to be denied their firearms rights, they must be committed against their will for at least two weeks.\u00a0\u00a0This time was chosen for a reason: In most states this is the point at which the doctors must go to a court and get an order to continue holding the person against their will.\u00a0\u00a0In court the person can present a defense, and to deprive someone of their rights without such due process violates the 5th Amendment.\u00a0\u00a0Of course getting in-patient treatment might actually help the person and reduce the danger to the public if and when they are released.
\n\"\"
\nThe Answer Is Not To Deny Everyone Gun Rights
\nIt Is To Identify And Help The Dangerous Mentally Ill<\/p>\n

This is what, in my opinion, we can change that will actually help:<\/p>\n

1) Make sure that every state has an emergency commitment law on the books<\/p>\n

2) Send mental health professionals into the field to evaluate people that are acting out and may be dangerous.\u00a0\u00a0This should take the form of special teams of trained police officers and a mental health professional.\u00a0 Most cops would welcome this change.<\/p>\n

3) Fund mental health care so people get the help they need, or are cared for in secure facilities if they remain dangerous.<\/p>\n

4) Aggressively enforce the laws against firearms trafficking and straw purchasing.<\/p>\n

5) Finally, I would support changing laws so that mental health professionals could petition the courts to find that their patient is too mentally ill to retain their firearms rights.\u00a0 This would have to be done with respect for the patient\u2019s 5th Amendment due process rights.\u00a0 There would also have to be a process in which the patient could petition the courts for restoration of their gun rights \u2014 such a firearms disability cannot be permanent and irrevocable.<\/p>\n

Do these things, and we may be able to\u00a0reduce\u00a0(not eliminate) the number of mass shootings by the dangerously mentally ill.<\/p>\n

Rev. R. Vincent Warde
\n3-23-2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most Mass Shooters, Including Those With Mental Illness, Obtained Their Firearms After Passing A Background Check. Expanding Background Checks Won\u2019t Stop Them. There are realities about gun control and the mentally ill that gun control advocates ignore. The first reality is that the best that any gun control law can do is force buyers into … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-medicine","category-rkba","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66135,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66133\/revisions\/66135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}