HR-2640: A message to my Liberal friends who don't want to buy a gun... Why you should care.
I'm not sure what it is with McCarthys in DC, but where Joe had his HUAC Blacklist and "commies", Carolyn has the NCIS criminal Database and her so-called "mental defectives".
Somehow I can't believe that this McCarthy's congress will be any better at defining "mental defectives" than Joe's was at defining "Communists".
But it sure is intent on Blacklisting whoever they determine them to be.
Maybe that's why every Psychiatric and Psychological Professional and Advocacy group from the APA to NAMI has come out in public opposition to this bill. Innocent people, whose only "crime" is "adjudication" - not a clinical diagnosis - are put into a database designed to identify Criminals.
History has shown a particularly bad precedent when it comes to Governments deciding who and why someone is "mentally defective". It was a particular favorite of Stalinist Russia to find dissent to be de-facto indication of mental instability.
This new McCarthyist bill has NO clinically accepted defining criteria for mental instability or "dangerousness" - leaving it up to the whim and Politics of whatever Administration is in power. Imagine an administration that believes Homosexuality is a Mental Disorder....
Think about this for a minute: The NRA co wrote and supports this bill. The APA opposes it.
Who do you think has the best interests of Psychiatry and non-gun-owners in mind?
There are ways of discussing keeping firearms out of the hands of people who are truly dangerous - but putting innocent people into a criminal database isn't one of them.
JMO, but do you really trust them to do this any better than they do with Eminent Domain?
Labels: Politics
