Last outpost of crazy headlines: Boehner's bartender

"John Boehner’s bartender planned to poison him at Ohio country club"

That's only part of the wackiness. Let's see--according to this news story, the bartender turned himself in, perhaps because he was trying to get his bartending job back! 

He also claimed to be Jesus Christ and Boehner is the devil. Is this a case of someone taking a statement from a conservative source ("Boehner is the devil" or some such) literally instead of figuratively?

Well, probably not. I recognize this as manic behavior from someone who's gone off their meds, and I mean this literally, not as an internet insult. I've seen it often and in different forms, and once even called the applicable counseling service three days before the person ended up in a psych unit. Bipolar disorder is a common mental health issue among us wacky humans. I bet everyone knows someone with it. But I digress... 

Still, I wish everyone would desist from calling others 'the devil.' Some people can't process those statements appropriately, and we don't really need the vitriol. Give it a rest... and please drink and talk responsibly!

Image: onekit.enr-corp.com

Massacre NOT averted

Last year I wrote a brief post about a massacre that was averted. This time we weren't as lucky. The parents tried to stop their crazy son, but his demeanor fooled the police. Now six people are dead, 13 are injured, and countless are traumatized.

We should do something about keeping guns out of the hands of people in questionable mental states. We should be able to heed the warnings of friends and family and prevent the potential murder sprees that people are aware of. Here, despite the awareness, despite the actions of the concerned parents, the murderer was able to carry out his plans.

Maybe Senators Toomey and Manchin will resurrect their intelligent bill on gun purchase restrictions. However, it was a failure last year, and the NRA and knee-jerk idiot gun-rights nuts all over the country probably aren't any more reasonable this year. So we should do something, but we won't... because we live in the Land of the Free to be Idiots-With-Guns. This is one of the taxes we Americans pay, but it's a tax in blood and lives.

One of the many fathers

Image: cnn.com

Short: The shooter's Navy career

Here's a fairly detailed description of the Navy Yard shooter's career in the Navy. Elsewhere I read that around 25% of recruits have a similarly poor discipline record (sorry, can't find the link).

I don't think the Navy is at fault. The problem is that our society is more stressed than it had been, and more people are acting out in many ways. There won't be a quick fix for that, and a bandaid law probably won't have more than marginal effect. Still, I think we should try to improve the situation, with increased vigilance and reduced availability of guns. However, the best possible change, reducing the angry gun culture in this country, isn't likely to occur and certainly can't be mandated by law.

Can you pick out the bad ones?

Image: cruelkev2.blogspot.com

Short: Guns and mental health

Finally, someone else is talking about tighter restrictions on gun purchases for those with mental health problems. Senators Toomey and Manchin, both strong proponents for gun rights, have a very center-right proposal that tries to improve the situation without infringing on gun ownership rights. How to do that?Strengthen the parts of the law that forbid sales to the wrong people.

That sounds eminently logical to me. In my opinion, this is likely to be more effective than more guns in schools and hoping someone carrying will be on site to stop a shooter. It definitely should be more palatable than an assault weapons ban.

But I'm wrong, it's not palatable. RedState is immediately against it. My God, they're empowering doctors to take away your gun rights. What if some pinko doctor decides you shouldn't have a gun. Even worse, what if lots of pinko doctors got to together and put hordes of red-blooded Americans on the list simply because they think anyone who wants a gun is unbalanced.

I agree that there is potential for abuse. Therefore doctors should be answerable when they refer a person for the restriction. But I thought we wanted to try to prevent disturbed people from buying guns. Do we still want to do this? Well, this is what it would look like.

Maybe, on second thought, Erick Erickson is fine with Jared Loughner and James Holmes buying guns. I'm still not.

Image: 199trust.com

Short: Massacre averted

One component of gun reform that I'd like to see (based on my experience in mental health) is hotlines for reporting violently obsessed people and mandates for mental health professionals to report their concerns. Get the names into the databases so guns and ammo can't be sold to these worrisome people. Currently, our restrictions due to mental instability are not nearly tight enough. Yes, there is potential for abuse, but there can be an appeals process where a person can demonstrate their sanity and stability.

Here's a story of a family in Florida that reported a family member for having a dangerous arsenal and dangerous delusions. Thank God for the family's actions and for the police SWAT response. But it doesn't take a genius to guess this kicker:

"...the vet may walk out of the crisis stabilization unit after his mandatory seven days and demand that police return his weapons. The judge is not even sure that the state officials... can pull his concealed weapons permit."

There isn't a litmus strip that gun dealers or gun license processors can use to determine that a gun owner will cross the line and become a criminal. We need to use less certain criteria that will sometime deprive non-criminals of access to guns. Why can't we, and the NRA, live with that?

 A different Miami arsenal

Image: es2usa.blogspot.com