The always reliable democrat Geran Tarr and her fellow gun grabbers Harriet Drummond and Ivy Sponholtz dusted off a bill Tarr wrote last year after a former resident of Alaska Psychiatric Institute went on a shooting spree in Florida. He was institutionalized for being delusional and paranoid. He was released four days later. Cops took his gun before visiting API. Returned it upon his release. He went to Florida and killed five people. Pretty successful treatment, that. Rather than focusing on treatment or the lack thereof, Tarr and her fellow democrats focus on the weapons. http://mustreadalaska.com/tarrs-bill-give-judges-right-take-guns/
In this case, like the Florida school shooting the entire system (government) failed at all levels.
So, what do these democrat ladies (and I use that term loosely) propose? Not unexpectedly, more government. Yeah, that’ll work out nicely.
At its most fundamental level, Tarr’s HB 75 proposes making it easier for a judge to sign an order allowing the state to seize your weapons and ammunition if your family or the courts decide you are mentally ill or a danger to yourself. Better yet, if I am reading the legislation correctly, you don’t even have to be present or notified of the hearing for it to take place. http://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Detail/30?Root=HB%20%2075
Well, that all sounds nice, but how do we get it done? Better yet, what are the dangers?
Am I the only one who remembers not so very long ago that the Soviet Union diagnosed their political dissidents as mentally ill, and used that excuse to send them to the Gulag?
How about Janet Napolitano then head of Department of Homeland Security during the early part of the O’Bama years who tried to designate all veterans returning from the Middle East as PTSD sufferers, and as such too dangerous to themselves and their families to own guns?
We have a breathtakingly politicized American Psychiatric Association who reversed themselves in 1975, deciding that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness. They did a similar move in 2005 with transgender, even though as trained medical practitioners they know much better than any of the rest of us that sex is set at the cellular level at the point of conception.
What happens when they decide that conservatives are clinically insane? How about Bernie supporters? How about Triggly Puft or her snowflake friends? Or Trump voters? Or anyone who carries a firearm? Once you start designating people as mentally ill because they don’t echo your political viewpoint, literally anything is possible. And with wannabee authoritarians like today’s left, EVERYTHING that doesn’t agree with them will be. The midnight knocks on the door are already happening in California. http://www.guns.com/2016/02/16/state-confiscates-83-guns-in-prohibited-possessor-sweep/
Given the insidious, pernicious intrusion of politics into every single corner of our lives, I would never trust any government at any level or anyone from the other (or my) political party to make it possible for a politicized courts system or a politicized medical establishment to do the same thing.
We’ve seen with the example of the old Soviet Union how easy it is to use that particular tool against political enemies. And I don’t think we ought to hand it to anyone sooner, later, or any time in between.
A great side discussion in this is what other constitutional rights do these democrats suggest we lose when our families or some leftist judge decide we are nuts? Right to an abortion? Right to free speech? Right to peaceably assemble? Right to petition our government? Right to worship as we see fit? Right to not allow troops or law enforcement to camp out in our homes? Right to vote and support for the candidate of our choice?
If Reps Tarr, Drummond and Sponholtz want to empower the courts, families and disinterested outsiders to steal civil rights from their friends, neighbors and family members because they think they might be bats*&! crazy, perhaps it is time to suggest the obvious: Great idea! You self identify and turn yourselves in first.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
