Posted on 04/11/2013 3:29:55 AM PDT by IbJensen
I just talked to someone familiar with the Toomey-Manchin proposal who raises a serious concern based on his understanding of the legislation.
Everyone on all sides agrees that we need better help for those with mental health problems who need treatment.
Unfortunately, the person I talked with is concerned that the Toomey-Manchin proposal could discourage people from getting help.
The proposal will allow a doctor to add a patient to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) without ever telling the patient he or she has been added.
There would be no due process requirement. Not all doctors will be able to do it with the same ease, but many will. Knowing a doctor could add him to a federal database as mentally ill without his knowledge could potentially dissuade a patient from going to the doctor in the first place to get help.
Worse, if the doctor does so and makes a mistake, the patient would have to actively work through the system to get himself removed — guilty before being proven innocent. In some states, should a doctor flag you as having mental illness without your knowledge, you may very well see the state come collect your previously purchased guns.
Activist mental health providers will probably be overly aggressive in adding people to the list. Give it five years in liberal areas and people who believe in the physical resurrection of Christ will probably get automatic entry onto the list.
Mental health is a serious issue and the Toomey-Manchin legislation could have negative consequences. Worse, it would still not stop a Columbine, a Newtown, or the daily massacres in Chicago.
This is the beginning of the end of the 2nd amendment. What will be included in the background check; having a neighbor feud, a family member’s medication, arrests or convictions and for what, a comment on Free Republic, etc.? As we all knwo this new act could be mild and with amendments could get far worse. Any freedom loving pubbie ought to think long and hard before supporting this gun grabbing act.
Between Section 2716 of the Obamacare Act, and an Executive Order by BO on January 16,2013, your medical privacy rights were eviscerated and doctors’ records concerning the mental health of gun owners were fair game. Toomey-Manchin just codifies the E.O. SHAME!! SHAME!! SHAME!! Call your senators!
They actually want a national implanted ID chip....to be used for EVERY transaction EXCEPT voting and applying for government entitlements.
I got a free trip in the 90’s to a meeting and the DOD came in and showed us what small pox and anthrax looked like.
Sometimes the free trips are warranted.
Wish they would bring me back for a refresher.
Spending your third decade of life in the library has its privileges.
Just say no.
It refers to, “doctors”. There are all kinds of doctors and don’t assume they are referring only to psychiatrists. Example: pediatric doctor asks five year old if mommy and daddy have a gun, child answers yes, in the closet. BLAM, child endangerment.
I can envision a rapid stop to this practice when someone whose guns were stolen in this manner, but who has one hidden elsewhere decides to make sure that no one else is similarly victimized.
I am not advocating this, mind you, just speculating. Were I a doc I wouldn’t report anyone, and I would be very open and up front about it.
And this takes us back to why doctors are asking patients if they have guns in the house.
Remember all the activist doctors who said they have a “right” to ask such a question? Would anyone be stupid enough now to give an affirmative answer?
I do believe that mandatory health screening for children was part of one of these gun bills.
“Were I a doc I wouldn’t report anyone, and I would be very open and up front about it.”
As was my Doc when asked where the five pages of medical history, I was asked to fill out, came from. The answer Homeland Security, and please exercise your right not to fill them out.
Which is all well and good so long as treatment is not withheld for not having the history filled out. You can well imagine in short order that little quirk will be quickly rectified just as soon as all five pages are deemed important enough to change the opt in opt out choice, to “your papers please”. Oh, forget the please.
And here’s the problem— who is defining “mental illness?” Yup-you’re mentally ill if you are conservative, a gun owner, etcetcetcetc!! Doctors will be threatened with liability if they don’t help get the guns out of the hands of their ill patients!
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