State trooper can't have gun while off duty due to mental health record, Pa. court rules

Pennlive ^ | December 26, 2013 | Matt Miller

[moonshinner_09]

Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael L. Keyes is in an odd situation.

When on duty, he can carry a gun.

Yet while off duty, he is barred by law from possessing any firearms, because seven years ago he suffered from deep depression, repeatedly tried to kill himself by taking drugs and was involuntarily committed for mental health treatment.

Keyes' latest attempt to be allowed to have a gun all the time was rejected this week by the state Superior Court.

That court upheld an earlier ruling by Perry County Senior Judge Keith B. Quigley that Keyes' involuntary mental health commitment constitutes an unsurmountable legal barrier to his ability to possess a gun while off duty.

An attempt to reach Keyes' attorney, Joshua Prince, for comment on the case wasn't successful Thursday. Keyes has been involved in legal battles ever since completing his mental health treatment. He also had to fight to be reinstated to the state police.

He was serving as a state trooper in Newport, when he was placed on temporary leave and ordered into mental health treatment in 2006. He finished treatment in less than a year and had to battle to get his job back, even after his doctor cleared him to go back to work.

[moonshinner_09]

This has to be the best joke of the year..Sounds like something right out of Saturday Night Live.

[Dick Vomer]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....hahahaha. this is priceless

[JRandomFreeper]

He needs to turn his badge in for a shovel.

/johnny

[Carriage Hill]

Ping to Pa List...

[Bryanw92]

He only tried to kill himself, so maybe the next dog he meets will survive.

[House Atreides]

Trooper Keyes’ service in the State Police is not likely to end well.

[Chode]

I cannot believe how incredibly stupid that is. I mean Dehydrated stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid, so stupid it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. It is trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. It emits more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know.

but then again...

[NoCmpromiz]

Too bad we can’t get wolfie’s take on this...

[Vendome]

Mmmmm K....

Either he is still a threat to himself and should be barred from any firearn or he has figured out how to “deal” more effectively and his rights should be fully restored.

[smokingfrog]

Barney Fife him.

[bunkerhill7]

Uniforms cure Schizophrenia

[Vendome]

Thatz jus Stoopit...

[Autonomous User]

Cop Unions. Right.

[Carriage Hill]

He’s driving a school bus these days, so the dogs are safe, for now. Heh.

[Chode]

100%... 8^)

[Anton.Rutter]

I knew a highway patrolman whose nickname was Psycho among his fellow patrolmen (who I knew), because he’d gotten out of the Marines on a psychological discharge. One day his wife left him, and he quit his job to go interstate looking for her.

I talked to the property manager that inspected the house he vacated (small town) and the bedrooms had windows nailed shut and hasps on the doors as if someone was locking occupants inside, also punch/kick holes on the walls and gunshot holes in the ceiling.

Word was the wife stole several hundred bucks from her part time job as a convenience store cashier the day she ran off. I can’t imagine a more desperate situation.

[Carriage Hill]

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“repeatedly tried to kill himself by taking drugs ....”

Is he allowed to have (legal) drugs? Is he still allowed to go to the roof of buildings? Is he allowed to walk across high bridges? Is he ... well, you get the idea.

BTW,repeated suicide attempts sound more like a cry for help, than a serious effort at killing yourself.

[Jedidah]

LOL!

[Nervous Tick]

Factor in that most police “social work” these days is done with a taser.

And/Or the officer on the beat calls in the SWAT team.

Presumably the steroids have made none of the SWAT team members depressed or bipolar. So they are OK with their full-auto weapons, armored personnel carriers, RPG’s...

;-)