When Will It Stop

 So another school shooting, this time perpetrated by a female identifying as a male with the typical trappings reinforced by dramatic media coverage of previous incidents: an AR-style assault rifle, an assault pistol, a semi-automatic handgun, and a manifesto boasting of pending internet fame and a glorious death. Like a checklist for the deranged. Brought to you courtesy of video games, gun-free zones, and our failure to identify the mentally ill among us, specifically our drug-addled, gender-bending, social media-addicted, perpetually depressed youth. Working from home or just not working. What a bunch of coddled wankers. Yet what was the predictable knee-jerk response? President mumbles wasted no time blaming guns and the failure of Republicans to pass his proposed ban on assault-style weapons. Of course. The Washington Post, the rag most suited to house training your puppy, claimed: “the shooting focused attention on gun laws in Tennessee, which gun control advocates say are among the most lax in the country.”  What gun control advocates are those? Oh yeah, those who think all gun laws are the most lax in the country. Yet, in the very next paragraph, the flunkies at the Post found the solution but came to the wrong conclusion. “Hale (the shooter), who had legally purchased multiple guns, had previously been under a doctor's care for an undisclosed emotional disorder. Hale’s parents told law enforcement officials after the shooting that they had felt Hale should not own weapons.”  The solution? Red flag laws that are the rage in 19 blue states but failed to pass in Tennessee after a bill was introduced that, here you go: “met heavy opposition from state Republican leaders who described such statutes as unconstitutional.” And why was that?  Because they are unconstitutional. And ripe for misuse and haphazard application. Who is it that will differentiate between an actual threat and perception?  Or worse yet, petty disputes and domestic squabbles? He threatened me; he looked at me funny; I feel like my life is in danger; he was stalking me; he was not mentally stable. Or perhaps he’s just a Republican. Take his guns away. And all his cutlery as well. Deny him his constitutional rights. Yeah, that’s going to be a workable solution. And often, the application of these laws is left up to local law enforcement. The state police investigator in a red flag state, for example, who couldn’t be bothered when called on Christmas Eve for a suicide threat. Even after one of his officers was threatened as well. Just take his pistols but let him keep his hunting rifle, was the solution. Sure, can’t do any damage with that lever action .30-30. Idiots. This example actually happened, illustrating how unwieldy and impractical the law is in practice. Too much wiggle room, opinion, and innuendo. And the Supreme Court will find it unconstitutional when the 19 states come under scrutiny. But the solution is right there. We need an independent arbiter. And that has to be our mental health professionals. If you are diagnosed with “an undisclosed emotional disorder,” shouldn’t your mental health be the very yardstick for gun ownership?  Isn’t that your red flag? Isn’t that list of psychiatric medications that “dog whistle” that you lefties are always blowing? We don’t lock up the mentally ill anymore; we medicate them and set them loose. And sometimes, they take their meds and show up to follow-up appointments. And sometimes they don’t. But what about patient privacy and HIPAA, screams the left. What about it?  If you’re seeking to keep guns out of the hands of the deranged, mental competency is a good place to start. And I’m not talking about billboards proclaiming, “Bob’s a nutcase.” We have the background checks in place for the purchase of firearms nationwide. Don’t let the media fool you into thinking you can just stroll into a gun store and purchase an arsenal. That is nonsense. There is paperwork. They’re always paperwork. And a criminal background check. NICS, the national criminal instant background check, has been law since 1993. So without disclosure, the NICS system could add an adjudication of mental competency parameter and, without disclosure, simply deny the application. Like when your credit card is denied, the server doesn’t know why and often you don’t either. The mental health advocates will undoubtedly howl, claiming patients with only mild forms of depression will be caught up in the net. But surely a mental health physician will be able to differentiate between “I’m depressed because my dog died” and something more serious. Like John Fetterman, for example. Further, if you have been prescribed mood-altering drugs, specifically SSRIs or tricyclic antidepressants, which have been documented as potentially increasing suicide risk with adverse effects such as anxiety, agitation, and confusion, then perhaps these folks shouldn’t have access to firearms. It will be unpopular with the mental health community, and the NRA may even object on the grounds of potential for abuse, but if we are to put a stop to the carnage, we have to rationally examine the similarities in these perpetrators and stop blaming the gun. And that consistent similarity is mental health.