On Wednesday evening, a rifle-toting gunman murdered 18 people and wounded at least 13 more in Lewiston, Maine, when he opened fire at two separate locationsāa bowling alley, followed by a bar. A manhunt is still underway for 40-year-old suspect Robert Card, a trained firearms instructor with the U.S. Army Reserve who, just this summer, spent two weeks in a mental hospital after reporting that he was hearing voices and threatening to shoot up a military base.
While the other late-night talk show hosts stuck to poking fun at new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert took his rebuke of the Louisiana congressman to a whole other level.
āNow, we know the arguments,ā Colbert said of the do-nothing response politicians generally have to tragedies such as this. āSome people are going to say this is a mental health issue. Others are going to say itās a gun issue. But thereās no reason it canāt be both.ā
Are there any checks and balances so that mentally unstable people canāt get guns?
Involuntary commitment disqualifies a person from owning guns legally. Itās essentially never happens though.
I think he voluntarily checked himself in, thatās what someone said last night. Iām talking more about before they get a gun.
Personally, this is one of the reasons I keep my mental illness to myself. I donāt want to hurt anyone but myself (and thatās not all the time), but knowing I might lose the right forever makes me keep a lid on things, and honestly prevents me from reaching out for help when Iām feeling particularly sour.
Also, the paperwork you sign before your NICS background check asks if youāve been committed, voluntary or involuntary.
Also, involuntarily commiting definitely happens, but usually itās after a failed suicide attempt, and just nets you a 20-25k bill (with insurance) and having no way of going back to work for three days costing you your job. Iāve got two friends with that exact experience.
And thatās the other edge of the double edged sword. If you say, āpeople with known mental health problems lose certain rights, even temporarily,ā some portion of people with those problems will just fight harder to keep them unknown, foregoing help in the process. Itās just like how when certain places pass laws prohibiting having sex when you know you have an STD, some people just stop getting checked so they donāt āknowā they have an STD.
Thereās basically nothing temporary to government. You generally have to fight to undo anything, even if the laws says it should.
And it bans them from owning gun virtually forever unless they can afford a good lawyer and all the legal fees youll need to do it.