Gun Control & RKBA
Related: About this forumStudy Probes Access to Guns And Risks For Those With Mental Illness
Researchers at Duke University studied records of 81,701 adults in Floridas Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties for more than 10 years starting in 2002. Individuals had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
Over that time, 254 study subjects committed suicide nearly four times the average suicide rate of the general adult population in Florida during the same period.
Researchers discovered people with serious mental illnesses who use guns to commit suicide are often legally eligible to purchase guns. They are allowed to buy the guns despite having a past record of an involuntary mental health examination and brief hospitalization.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2016/06/07/study-probes-access-to-guns-and-risks-for-those-with-mental-illness/104394.html
jmg257
(11,996 posts)Our federal gun regulations pertaining to mental illness prohibit lots of people from accessing firearms who are not violent, and never will be, Swanson said.
At the same time, they fail to identify some people who will be violent or suicidal. With this data, we can improve criteria for restrictions that might actually reduce gun violence, but also carefully balance risk and rights.
Of the 50 people {out of 254} who used a gun to kill themselves, 72 percent were legally eligible to buy guns at the time of their deaths. The other 28 percent were not supposed to have or buy a gun, but used one to take their own lives.
The data showed slightly higher than average violent crime arrest rates among adults in the study, but found their use of guns in those crimes (13 percent) was lower than in a comparable population from the same community (24 percent).
Of the arrests for violent gun-related crimes observed in the study, two-thirds involved adults who were already prohibited from accessing a gun, pointing to problems with background checks and enforcement. The studys findings suggest some suicides and violent crimes with guns could be prevented by a law many states have already enacted: blocking the sale of new guns by federally licensed dealers to people who have been involuntarily held during a mental health crisis, but were not committed against their will."
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We live in a country where private gun ownership is cherished, constitutionally protected, and very prevalent. Gun violence is a challenging problem in the U.S., and one that requires a lot of careful thinking and research to bring evidence to bear for these policies.
marble falls
(61,996 posts)examination and brief hospitalization." !!!!!!!!
And this supports/is supported by the Second amendment, how????
gejohnston
(17,502 posts)examinations that last three days. Basically, if you are suicidal and someone calls the cops, the cops take you for the examination. The Gun Control Act prohibits people from owning guns if they were adjudicated as mentally incompetent or defective; however, the states don't generally do a good job of telling the FBI.
The issue is really due process and HIPPA laws.