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What should be done about gun owners who are prescribed psychotropic drugs?

  • Nothing. There is no clear evidence that they are a danger to anyone.

    Votes: 13 44.8%
  • Should have to clear a psych eval to be allowed to purchase a firearm.

    Votes: 2 6.9%
  • Should have to clear a psych eval annually to own firearms.

    Votes: 13 44.8%
  • have to have used the drug for more than one year before being allowed to own a firearm.

    Votes: 1 3.4%

  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .
OK, what would be one for you? I am just trying to get a dialogue going about it. To me, it seems like this is the area we need to start looking at if we want to really do something to prevent or reduce the frequency of these attacks.

Trust me, I don't take it lightly. As I mentioned I am on psychotropic drugs myself. If it was proven that the use of these drugs is a root cause, I would gladly submit myself to whatever monitoring necassary for the greater good. I want these things to stop.

After some thought I recall a friend of mine who was told by an Army Recruiter that he would have to be off of his med's for a period of not less then one year without incident before they would consider him for service in the Army. Even with that he would have to have a doctors note as proof.

OP, this is your thread, do what wish. If I were to suggest an additional choice for your poll it would be along those lines listed above. If the military can implement that kind of requirement then maybe the same consideration should be considered for gun ownership.

I myself am not against anti depressant drugs. I believe they have their uses but they definitely have their draw backs as your links tend to point out.
 
After some thought I recall a friend of mine who was told by an Army Recruiter that he would have to be off of his med's for a period of not less then one year without incident before they would consider him for service in the Army. Even with that he would have to have a doctors note as proof.

OP, this is your thread, do what wish. If I were to suggest an additional choice for your poll it would be along those lines listed above. If the military can implement that kind of requirement then maybe the same consideration should be considered for gun ownership.

I myself am not against anti depressant drugs. I believe they have their uses but they definitely have their draw backs as your links tend to point out.

I would add it, but it doesn't look like I can. If someone knows how let me know and I'll do it. So to be clear, you feel that if one is taking psychotropic drugs they should not be allowed to own a firearm?
 
I do not think there has been enough long term effect research for these drugs. Even short term for that matter. I think our doctors have become to dependent on the drug companies, it has become a drug the world into compliance. Especially with kids these days.
 
I would add it, but it doesn't look like I can. If someone knows how let me know and I'll do it. So to be clear, you feel that if one is taking psychotropic drugs they should not be allowed to own a firearm?

Never is to definitive of a term. I think if the military believes it is important to be clean and sober (for a lack of a better phase) followed with doctor confirmation. Then I would be just fine with a person owning a gun afterwords.

At this point it would rate up there with going to the doctor to maintain a CDL medical card. But that is another animal altogether.
 
Here's why SSRIs and other antidepressants are linked to suicide and violence. People who are clinically depressed generally lack the energy or will to do anything. Go to work. Get out of bed. Etc. The first thing an antidepressant does is "activate" the person taking it. So if they were thinking about hurting themselves or others, now they have the energy to do it. If they're adolescents, who already lack the ability to understand outcomes of their decisions, they or whoever it is who bullied them or tormented them is headed for a bad end. This is a correlation, not a causative factor. That's why people on antidepressants should be monitored closely when starting them and parents of teenagers are warned to watch them. All you've done is list a bunch of cases that seem to prove what you want to prove out of literally tens or hundreds of thousands where nothing like that happens. And I'm on an SSRI myself, by the way, and have been on a variety of meds, many of which listed on your article, having suffered from depression at times over my life and definitely from A DVD, the primarily inattentive type without the hyperactivity. So far I'm 59, made E-9 and served 21 years of active duty in the Air Force, had a second successful career in mental health, and haven't killed myself or anyone else yet. And know way more people than your article cite who fit the same profile and have benefited greatly from psychotropic medications.
 
Here's why SSRIs and other antidepressants are linked to suicide and violence. People who are clinically depressed generally lack the energy or will to do anything. Go to work. Get out of bed. Etc. The first thing an antidepressant does is "activate" the person taking it. So if they were thinking about hurting themselves or others, now they have the energy to do it. If they're adolescents, who already lack the ability to understand outcomes of their decisions, they or whoever it is who bullied them or tormented them is headed for a bad end. This is a correlation, not a causative factor. That's why people on antidepressants should be monitored closely when starting them and parents of teenagers are warned to watch them. All you've done is list a bunch of cases that seem to prove what you want to prove out of literally tens or hundreds of thousands where nothing like that happens. And I'm on an SSRI myself, by the way, and have been on a variety of meds, many of which listed on your article, having suffered from depression at times over my life and definitely from A DVD, the primarily inattentive type without the hyperactivity. So far I'm 59, made E-9 and served 21 years of active duty in the Air Force, had a second successful career in mental health, and haven't killed myself or anyone else yet. And know way more people than your article cite who fit the same profile and have benefited greatly from psychotropic medications.

It isn't my list, and I admitted at the beginning I didn't knoe if this was a cause or symptom that the shooters share. I think it definitely worth looking at and talking about. It's a hell of a lot closer to fixing the problem than banning guns.
 
Hypothetically, if it was proven that every mass shooting was done by someone on these drugs. Don't you guys think that something would need to be put in place to monitor these patients if they own firearms? Check in from time to time and make sure their dosages are still good? Would that be infringement? Absolutely. But would you vote for it? Would you allow yourself to be monitored?

If the answer is no, then it seems that we are truly not willing to do anything to stop these attacks.

What I am saying is at some point, if it is proven that there is a group of people who are at a greater risk to follow this path, what do we do?
 
The problem is the various state statutes relating to dealing with and involuntarily hospitalizing the minority of mentally ill people who are dangerous to themselves or others. It has become a civil rights issue with the full scope of civil rights protections for them in all but the most extreme cases. Until those laws are amended, nothing in this area is actually possible.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk HD
 
I would add it, but it doesn't look like I can. If someone knows how let me know and I'll do it. So to be clear, you feel that if one is taking psychotropic drugs they should not be allowed to own a firearm?

I've been thinking more about this topic and thought it important to add that even though I suggested an additional choice for your poll doesn't necessarily mean I would choose that option. It just means that I felt that something was missing from the available choices.

There is another thread running right now and chance are you have already seen/read it. http://www.northwestfirearms.com/legal-political/131233-should-doctors-teach-gun-safety.html

My initial view point via that thread was fairly hard line. But I was coming from the point view if I was going to the doctor for a routine visit for blood pressure check up, flu bug or whatever. If my doctor asked the question out of the blue "do you have any guns" during that type of appointment I would tell him go pound sand.

You brought up and interesting view point regarding the anti depressants in which case a doctor would/should know the effects of these medications and they should know their patients enough to be able to make a professional decision. After all some medications state "Do not operate motor vehicles or machinery". Not everyone who takes anti depressants (for various reasons) should never own a weapon. Then there are folks who take anti depressants and they do just fine. I am coming around to the idea that anti depressants would be the one exception I would make to a doctor asking their patient the questions of "Do you have any guns".

If a person on anti depressants wants to kill themselves then they are more than welcome to kill themselves all day, everyday of the week if they wish. Just don't let it affect the people around them.

It's when these folks (such as those illustrated in your links) go monkey nuts bass ackwards is when I have the problem. Because they are taking their delusions out on other people at their expense and then they are to cowardly to face the heat and kill themselves. They could have done that without harming another soul. I have been thrust into that very situation (refer to post #2) and a lot of people died that day and even more were injured.

You approached this topic from the perspective of "taking anti depressants" and I am coming from the perspective of having had to respond to a "Shots fired" scenario that did not end well for a lot of people and yes this crack pot was not playing with a full deck.
 
Great post, Rotty.

I've said it before that I think it is strange that many of these shooters don't have a history of crime or violence. Not to say they were normal either, seems like many of them are characterized after the fact as being "off." So what changed? I am not saying these drugs are the smoking gun, but it does seem to be a somewhat common denominator. Why don't we see funding for research into this? If this was what Obama meant when he wanted to look into mental health, why not be more specific and say they are looking into this? I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy, but I think Big Pharm loves having the left and right fighting over gun control and not even looking their way. Anti and pro gunners should unite on this front and demand some serious research be done in this area. We should be able to get a real 90% backing on that one I would hope.
 

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