A Side Effect of NH SB 244? New York State (Of All Places) Has Already Warned Us - Granite Grok

A Side Effect of NH SB 244? New York State (Of All Places) Has Already Warned Us

Buy from Amazon.com

David “Muddy” Watters bill (SB 244 ) to create the mental health equivalent of a “no fly list” for the feds so they can be told whom not to sell a firearm, has more problems than we can shake a fire-stick at.  Susan Olsen does most of this argument justice here and here, so I have no intention of rehashing that now.  But there is one point which I have not seen discussed that does need ‘airing.’  A detrimental side-effect that was observed in New York State, not that long ago.

Back in the rush to judgement days, post Sandy Hook elementary tragedy, New York State rammed through an anti gun bill that proved conservatives right again.  Knee-jerk legislative action based solely on populist perception–particularly the ginned up kind Liberals love to create ans then point to as an excuse for bum-rushing any part of their agenda–will have unpleasant side effects.

The NY bill banned everyone except criminals from having magazines with more than  7 rounds–including public safety.  But it also included a mental health provision that would have a serious, negative side-effect not much different form David “Muddy” Watters SB244 anti-gun bill.

I wrote about here last January

People most likely to need treatment, who also happen to own fire-arms, who may or may not pose a risk, will simply avoid seeking treatment, to ensure they do not lose their firearms, even though they may at some point present a risk by failing to seek treatment.

You see, it makes no difference what your intentions are, even if they appear good.  Writing the health-care industry an open writ to define who can or cannot own a firearm has wider complication that just the arbitrary and capricious censorship of regular citizens we should expect, based on the whims of a traditionally left-leaning, anti-gun group as mental-health professionals.   It will keep people from seeking treatment.

So odds are good it will have exactly the opposite effect proponents claim, and exactly the effect that progressives want.  It will cull the ranks of law-abiding citizens who are allowed to legally own a firearm while having no effect on law-breakers, wile dissuading the mentally ill from seeking treatment.

It also opens up the populace to bureaucratic and legislative reinterpretations of what constitutes a mental health “issue,”  empowering the ruling class to define anyone they deem a threat to their authority or world view subject to (to paraphrase Dr. Dalrymple) the thousand natural diagnoses of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association that mental health professional opinion is heir to.

In the best interest of liberty and freedom from arbitrary tyranny at the hands of those convinced they know better, SB 244 must be put-down.  No sensible Republican can or should support it in any form, nor should any pro-gun Democrat, if for no other reason than that it opens a door that we may never again be able to close and will more likley than not create the very thing it proposes to limit.

>