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The "Mental Health System" has many problems not the least of these being a lack of clear standards as to what actually constitutes mental illness. Post traumatic stress disorder is one example of an ill defined mental illness that may or may not affect many. If we go to a situation that a person must "prove" their sanity and is presumed unfit to possess a firearm than that is defacto total revocation of any right to keep and bear arms. While it may be possible with some tests to determine that a person has a major psychiatric problem it is just about impossible to prove the absence of a problem. Further as with all illnesses people do recover, even with no treatment.

The problem we as a society face is that we ccan not make the rules govrerning the majority tailored to the few who are severely mentally ill. In the case of the school bus driver he was operating a vehicle which could inflict at least as much damage as any rifle and no one questions why a person with such a mental history was in that position. This alone should show the questioners as disingenuous.

When it comes to the VA turning over records for vetrans I am incensed. I also have a real problem with the VFW for not actively oppossing such turn overs. Many vetrans who have gone to the VA for assistance were never adjudicated as having a mental problem that rendered them a danger to themselves or others.

How do we handle those who go for greif counseling? Should such a decision be grounds for revocation of a constitutional right? Clearly if one looks at the RIGHT to keep and bear arms the same way one looks at the Right to vote one gains a clear understanding that the loss of the right to vote requires a judicial proceeding. Would we as a society revoke a person's sufferage because of a visit to a psychiatrist? Clearly the resounding answer from the same people who wish to restrict the right to keep and bear arms has been an emphatic and resounding no.

Now we come to the ability of many mental health professionals to diagnose mental illness. Such a diagnosis is not objective and clear. It is an opinion based upon study and the mental outlook of psychiatrists and psychologists. Like the rest of the population there are competent and incompetent practitioners. Like the rest of the population there is an incidence of mental illness among these people. There are some who would argue that due to the nature of these professions there is a higher than normal incidence of mental illness in these fields but that is clearly not an indictment of any individual in these fields.

Mental illness is a disipline that has been subject to political pressures over the years. The delisting of homosexuality as a mental illness was an example of political pressure being applied. In the former Soviet Union political dissent was seen as a symptom of mental illness. An entire Gulag of mental insiututions existed. This entire issue is so fraught with dangers to personal liberty that it is definitely better to keep any revocation of rights totally within the judicial realm. Let any medical records stay out of the state's hand unless or until the issue comes before a court.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown