Should we be allowed to own guns?

Should those with mental health issues be allowed to pack heat?

(Another murder suicide shooting means more scrutiny of the mentally ill)

period.

Some MH consumers can own a gun and never be a problem. Some, not so much. It is not cut and dried.

Allowed?

I'm aghast at the word.

and am bumping an old thread, I have no shame.

I've been pondering that same thing myself for some time. In many of the instances in which we've witnessed murders, school shootings, and so on... there seems to be a general agreement that it is linked to mental health. That it indicates that an indivudal with a mental disorder... whether it be depression, bi-polar disorder, anxiety disorder, OCD, PTSD, or numerous others.. that this is what caused the person to lash out.

I can't agree with that. Though I can certainly say that these feelings of pain, this suffering can make one want to lash out - it is not that specifically which causes them to do so. In my opinion it is more the fact that we live in a society where so little is known about how to treat these illnesses. Some times we are pitied, some times we are insulted, some believe that mental disorders and medications are for those who are morally defective - that it's some kind of personality flaw which causes these things. Others feel sorry for us, believe that it is something we cannot be rid of, something that will dictate our actions.

But to assume any of the above assumes that we are not human. It assumes that we somehow, due to the circumstances of our conditions have not the ability to reason that others have. That somehow we are less capable of behaving in a rational way.

I've suffered from PTSD since I was very young (13, I am 23 now) and I did own a gun once, when I was perhaps 21. I don't know, I liked to shoot at targets, and I liked having it in case I met with any unfriendly wildlife while out in the woods. I also liked having it for self defense if it became necessary. Though I never had an occasion (fortunately) to use it for such things - other than shooting at inanimate targets.

Then one day somehow my little sister got ahold of it. She was suicidal at the time, and told me she was thinking about using it to end it all. That very same day I took the gun to the pawn shop and sold it.

My PTSD did not.. and does not dictate my actions nor my concept of morality. Should we be allowed to? I dislike that question - a better one to ask, I think, is should anyone be allowed to? That one is far more worthy of debate.

I would have used it to take my life a long time ago.