Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Some With Histories of Mental Illness Petition to Get Their Gun Rights Back(FL barf alert)
ocala.com ^ | 4 July, 2011 | MICHAEL LUO

Posted on 07/04/2011 4:58:50 AM PDT by marktwain

PULASKI, Va. — In May 2009, Sam French hit bottom, once again. A relative found him face down in his carport “talking gibberish,” according to court records. He later told medical personnel that he had been conversing with a bear in his backyard and hearing voices. His family figured he had gone off his medication for bipolar disorder, and a judge ordered him involuntarily committed — the fourth time in five years he had been hospitalized by court order.

When Mr. French’s daughter discovered that her father’s commitment meant it was illegal for him to have firearms, she and her husband removed his cache of 15 long guns and three handguns, and kept them after Mr. French was released in January 2010 on a new regime of mood-stabilizing drugs.

Ten months later, he appeared in General District Court — the body that handles small claims and traffic infractions — to ask a judge to restore his gun rights. After a brief hearing, in which Mr. French’s lengthy history of relapses never came up, he walked out with an order reinstating his right to possess firearms.

The next day, Mr. French retrieved his guns.

“The judge didn’t ask me a whole lot,” said Mr. French, now 62. “He just said: ‘How was I doing? Was I taking my medicine like I was supposed to?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ ”

Across the country, states are increasingly allowing people like Mr. French, who lost their firearm rights because of mental illness, to petition to have them restored.

A handful of states have had such restoration laws on their books for some time, but with little notice, more than 20 states have passed similar measures since 2008.

(Excerpt) Read more at ocala.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; constitution; fl; petition
It seems pretty much a hit piece of "what ifs" and "sky is falling" logic. The worst case they can come up with is a guy who committed suicide.

Doesn't the left think that is a right?

1 posted on 07/04/2011 4:58:58 AM PDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: marktwain

Pulaski, hell everyone talks to bears in Pulaski. Years ago when George Washington was surveying Virginia, the crew stopped working for the day and George was catching up his paper work. He wondered out loud now what should we call this camp. About that time the mule tender was unloading the animals and just as he was pulling the harness off of the mule she let one. He jumped back and said Pu laski. George said that will work.


2 posted on 07/04/2011 5:14:16 AM PDT by org.whodat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

In the span of two seconds I came up with Jared Loughner and John Hinckley.


3 posted on 07/04/2011 6:36:23 AM PDT by flintsilver7 (Honest reporting hasn't caught on in the United States.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: flintsilver7
In the span of two seconds I came up with Jared Loughner and John Hinckley.

You could add Sara Jane Moore, but none of them petitioned a court to have their rights restored.

4 posted on 07/04/2011 7:11:06 AM PDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

Giving Zero hacking rights into our nuclear arsenal, negociating with the non-negociable arms issue, is enough to say that mental illness has become such a relative that... we forget that owning firearms has a lot with setting the record straight and making people think out of their so called mental illnesses because an armed society is a polite self-treating society.


5 posted on 07/04/2011 7:18:26 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

In a world where the standard diagnostic mental health manual says 1/3-1/4 of the adult population has some disorder (excessive grief, PTSD, ADD, ADHD, social anxiety disorder), do we really want civil rights like the 2nd linked to “sanity”?


6 posted on 07/04/2011 7:32:13 AM PDT by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

Meanwhile, several tens of thousands of combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, who were at least temporarily assigned as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for whom a law was written with *intent* to permanently deny them ownership of firearms, which Republicans insisted *not* be used to oppress veterans, are still armed, and doing quite well, thank you.

Very, very few if any have been involved in gun related crimes, and though a larger number have experienced chronic depression resulting in suicide, but a number *lower* than that of the general public, they remain honored, upright citizens, *despite* having been once diagnosed as “mentally ill”, due to having participated in the stress of combat.

Meanwhile, severely mentally ill people, like Gerald Loughner, who though appearing deeply disturbed to many individuals, was never committed to a mental institution because lawyers have determined that doing so would be oppressive to his rights. Which disproves that laws intending to keep guns out of the hands of dangerously mentally ill people are fatally flawed.


7 posted on 07/04/2011 9:08:46 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson