Colorado House Bill 14-1386 removes the requirement for "imminent" danger to self or others for emergency hospitalization. I have been pushing such a change for some time. It would have likely have meant that instead of boobytrapping his apartment and shooting up a theater, James Holmes would have been in a hospital, being treated for schizophrenia.
Unfortunately, as this May 2, 2014 Denver Post article points out, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is fighting this tooth and nail. They do not seem to understand that an emergency commitment is not what gets you added to the firearms disability list.
UPDATE: Just spent about 90 minutes being interviewed by a reporter from the Denver Post about the proposed change and the larger problem of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill.
Even if it isn't currently enough to get you added to the NICS "mentally incompetent" list, there's no guarantee that this will stay the same down the road. There's a lot of folk who had perfectly normal psych evals yet were betrayed at the sunset of the Clinton era, after all.
ReplyDeleteA weekend stay at the Hotel Whitecoat also has enough problems on its own: it's a major strike to reputation, employment, and your personal volation. If the bill allows it because someone thought your gun ownership counted as a threat, that's a problem even if it doesn't affect a background check.
Which, you know, can be worth it, if it's used and written properly. But it's it's not some magical free lunch. And if the administration warned of the danger washes their hands of it -- as in the Holmes case -- it's not nearly as certain a safety as you're claiming.
RMGO is extra fear mongering combined with a ruthless incompetence. Its inevitable that something stupid comes out of Dudley Brown.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could convince him to switch sides and take Bloomberg's money.