In current American society (Jan 2013) there is a stigma attached to having a "mental illness." This arises from several situations; the historical perception that the mentally ill are all violent and dangerous, the adverse light that Hollywood still paints the mentally ill with, and the lack of social and governmental support for differentiating the ill from the deranged by appropriate treatment. The current social furor over gun control in the wake of the Newtown, CT school shooting there is a focus on the role of mental illness in these incidents of domestic terror. In several incidents the perpetrators were under care for mental illness, but still had access to guns designed for mass slaughter.
Whether there should be general public access to such weapons should not be the focus of the debate. What should be in focus is the question of responsibility for proper training in the use of any firearms.
Being mentally ill does not mean that the sufferer is "insane" (which has the specific meaning of not being able to discern the difference between "right" and "wrong") and doesn't remove the person from being responsible for their actions. There is also no accepted definition of mental health that can adequately determine whether any given individual is or is not a "safe" person to carry a gun. Many folks who should not have access to guns because they may be dangerous to themselves or others have absolutely no history of mental illness. Additionally, the ability to be a "safe" gun carrier can change with astounding swiftness in the face of non-psychological health problems.
The rush to change the background check system for gun ownership has some good points, but also is fraught with a dangerous false perception that those who "pass" the check are safe to have guns. Unless there are means of assuring there are not huge cracks in the system for people to fall through, the current set of solutions being proposed are, perhaps, worse than useless in preventing future gun incidents.
There is also now more stigma that will be associated with seeking assistance from the mental health system: doing so will prevent one from exercising their constitutional rights, and that is a slippery slope that we have no knowing of what other rights may be curtailed. I suspect that adding to this stigma will lead to a more active avoidance of seeking help for mental health issues than currently exists.
I have some anecdotal evidence that there are folks who are actively avoiding help for mental distress in that I personally know some folks whom I would not trust with a gun in my presence who absolutely reject any suggestion that they consider getting some assistance for their problems. Yet a few of these people do have guns and speak of their use in occasionally threatening ways. (They make statements, all too often, along the lines of "I'd love to shoot that ______")
We might handle this by setting up a means of alerting authorities to these folks by "turning them in", but that leads to a culture of betrayal that further erodes the web of trust that a community needs to thrive. This web of trust is already suffering from the distrust that Americans feel for their government and the politicians that run it. The effect of the government using its powers to curtail even more civil rights and assume more control will do more to harm society than nearly anything else they could do.
No, this is not saying there is a conspiracy on the part of the politicians and power elite to attain more control. It is important to remember the pragmatic advice of "never attribute to malice the results of stupidity". In my opinion, the helter-skelter running around on the part of different factions within the government and society argue against there being a unified shadow government running things in secret. Divide and conquer is a good method of control, but the absolute lack of a coherent, all-explaining theory argues against any conspiracy.
I don't have any answer for the gun control debate, and I see valid arguments for and against both/all sides of the debate, but U hope that somehow America will muddle through to some dynamic compromise that allows us to survive a few more decades.
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