We hear a lot about making people undergo psychological evaluations to buy certain kinds of weaponry and on the face of it perhaps it could, in some bizarre universe far, far away make perfect sense, but in the United States the entire mental health/gun debate is subterfuge to make some of us feel as if the congress might actually “do something” about the many gun deaths occurring more often than milk going on sale at Walmart.
Let’s unpack this handy little idea and see just what’s inside. Hint: Not much.
First off, there currently are absolutely no requirements to get any kind of psychological evaluation short of committing mass murder and maybe certain high security jobs and a handful of police departments and a few other circumstances, but by in large most of us have no requirements to even see a shrink much less be subjected to their whims of whether or not we should be permitted to own guns.
Truth be told I simply do not trust most psychologists and have had some terrible experiences , but psychology is far from an exact science and in some cases has been proven to be pseudo-science. Do we really want a bunch of armchair hacks determining who can and cannot buy weapons? I certainly do not. But let’s forget my own personal experiences with the dark science of psychology. Instead let’s see where this might lead if laws are enacted to allow psychologists to determine who can and cannot purchase weapons of death.
Suppose that the federal law mandates that anyone wishing to purchase a gun of any kind MUST have a psychological evaluation first. How long do you suppose it would take for fully accredited schools of psychology to begin popping up that are funded in part or even fully funded by the NRA or their affiliates? I’m going to speculate that anyone who wants a gun would suddenly be perfectly able and probably would get a degree to become one of the select gun/mental health evaluators by simply filling out a form. Yes, I’m THAT much of a conspiracy theorist in that respect. A simple form and a bag of cash ought to do the trick. And besides, I don’t think anyone reading this blog entry believes the only person capable of signing such legislation is mentally capable of even considering it much less signing it.
Suppose I’m completely missing the mark and these would be evaluators would have to undergo rigorous academical requirements. We simply do not have enough psychologists with enough time to evaluate everyone wanting to purchase a gun. I’m further going to speculate on an average session with one of these folks.
Question: Have you even intended to kill several people at your school?
I’m going to assume that nobody would answer yes even if they’ve already done so.
Question: Do you love your mother?
What’s that got to do with the price of rice in China? Nothing of course, but you know...they have to ask.
OK, you pass and congratulations, you’re now certified to buy any kind of weapon capable of killing as many people as possible before police arrive.
The bottom line is that it’s not exactly difficult to convince most shrinks that you’re no risk to yourself much less innocent by-standers and unless some imaginary red flag is raised ahead of time by folks posting truly crazy stuff on social media there’s typically no reason to think most people have plans to commit these heinous crimes and yet they do more and more frequently not because they may have some dark secrets lurking in their minds, but because these weapons are just too damned easy to come by and too damned many people have been convinced that if they don’t have access to them that big, bad gubnit is out to get them and will impose horrible and terrible laws to restrict their ability to defend themselves against tyranny or would-be thieves.
I suppose one question should be, What item(s) do you own that may require you to have the ability to mow down and kill 20 people at once? A nice lawn mower? A really pretty diamond ring? Your rare collection of used toilet paper? I don’t know. What is worth the ability to commit mass murder that is so valuable that you’re willing to put everyone within firing range lives at risk each and every day? And please, let’s drop the tyranny stuff because you simply cannot own enough assault weaponry to defend against the United States military with its overwhelming stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. It’s quite literally impossible to defend against missiles launched from 10, 20 or even 1000 miles away with even 1000 assault weapons so none of these arguments hold water.
No, it’s time to stop allowing us to be distracted from sensible gun legislation with lip service talk of mental health evaluations of would-be mass murderers. Once somebody has begun killing innocent people because their girlfriend dumped them it’s already to late to even talk about mental health. The ship has sailed and insanity is fully entrenched as the status quo. No, your local shrink is never going to stop the mass murder of innocent children. They would have already done so if it were even remotely possible.
