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How do most of these unstable people get guns?
They steal them.
How do you get legal owners to take responsibility for their guns?
You hold them accountable.
Make gun owners legally liable for their guns, that were not properly secured, that are used in a crime.
Properly secured is NOT under the bed, on the fridge, in the car, in the closet, under a couch cushion, hanging over the fireplace, leaning against the wall, in the back window of your truck.
Properly secured is in a safe, or physically on your person.
Often the safe is stolen with the guns inside. It happend to my brothers neighbor.
I'm sorry that you can't think of other ways that you would defend yourself, other than to kill your brother.
Peace.
brian
I'm sorry that you can't see that I've taken every precaution I can to AVOID just such a scenario.
I've been dealing with my very violent brother for 40 years - and I haven't had to shoot him yet. I doubt seriously that it ever comes to that.
That being said, if I have to choose between shooting him, or protecting my six year old granddaughter (a highly unlikely scenario but let's use it for the sake of discussion) - he's going down. I would do anything necessary to protect that child from anyone who would harm her.
Do you think a better answer would be to allow a crazed and armed maniac to come into my house and kill my family?
You could just lock the door.
And, if he does have access to guns, maybe the guns should be gotten rid of..?
If he's as out-of-control as you say he is, it's quite hard to believe he's not already on heavy tranquilizers somewhere.
I would encourage considering ways to reach/help your brother without resorting to violence. I don't think anyone in your family, including him, wishes that to happen. Even if he's in a crisis situation.
And, if he does have access to guns, maybe the guns should be gotten rid of..?
If he's as out-of-control as you say he is, it's quite hard to believe he's not already on heavy tranquilizers somewhere.
I would encourage considering ways to reach/help your brother without resorting to violence. I don't think anyone in your family, including him, wishes that to happen. Even if he's in a crisis situation.
Peace.
brian
I think we have to be a bit more realistic about the threat here.
And, if he does have access to guns, maybe the guns should be gotten rid of..?
If he's as out-of-control as you say he is, it's quite hard to believe he's not already on heavy tranquilizers somewhere.
I would encourage considering ways to reach/help your brother without resorting to violence. I don't think anyone in your family, including him, wishes that to happen. Even if he's in a crisis situation.
Peace.
brian
With all due respect, you have absolutely NO idea what a hardship my brother's mental illness has been to our family.
For starters, he's charged with three felonies right now. One of them is "breaking and entering." Yes, he broke down a LOCKED door. He then proceeded to physically attack the tenant. Among other crimes.
He does not have access to the guns my family owns, but I have no idea whether or not he can get guns elsewhere.
He IS on heavy tranquilizers, in a facility, as we speak. However, our system is not set up to offer much long term care for such patients. The mental healthcare professionals, as well as law enforcement, have told us that eventually he WILL be released back into the general public - and they cannot protect us from him. Their words.
I read his file last week. In it are these exact words: "Do not turn your back on him. He is as clever as a fox and will hurt you if given the opportunity."
When he is released, he will be "required" to take his medication.
Right.
As for "resorting to violence" when treating my brother, this very idea would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. If I have to DEFEND myself or my family (for instance, my elderly parents, who are heartbroken by this and who live in fear of the day he is released), I won't consider that part of his "treatment plan." Things will have gone far beyond any treatment plan at that point.
I think we have to be a bit more realistic about the threat here.
Realistic?? Is her brother a brute beast, less than the value of a dog? Even the animal rights activists would be up in arms if you shot a dog that was rabid!
The person needs help. Comfort. A safe place, and soft reassuring. If that is not possible, then it may be that he has a brain tumor or something of that degree, that has made him completely helpless.
And that is STILL not any reason to kill him.
Com'on! Why can't people THINK? Killing people is not the solution to problems in society.
Brian; your points were well taken for the basic position of weapons not being the resolution of first choice but you then fell into debating with someone over the most sympathetic of circumstances, that being an insane family member who is violence prone.
And how exactly does a nation determine who is crazy unstable?
Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder and yet people with such a diagnosis are not more likely to become amass shooter.
All countr
It is believed the Newtown shooter was Autistic and yet there is nothing to suggest people within the Autism spectrum are moee prone towards violence.
If depression is considered unstable, about 1/10 people in the U.S. are on anti-depressants. Should they be required to give up their firearms?
Hundreds of millions of people in the world are on medications for some form of mental illness/instability. The overwhelming number of them do not become violent.
Many people never seek medical help for serious mental health issues.
It's almost impossible to use insanity as a defense, anymore.
The only thing that seems most likely to predict future violence is prior violence.
Exactly. Re: the bold-I was listening to NPR on the way to work shortly after the Conn. shootings. They were interviewing a psychiatrist and they were talking about just that. They asked the psych what was the best predictor of violence in a mentally ill person and he said "Prior history of violence". I laughed out loud in my car. Someone actually has to commit an act of violence to be considered at risk of committing an act of violence! It's like Dr. Phil says, "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior". In the meantime, these people have to present themselves for care. There is no evidence that Adam Lanza did so. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold got some counseling for some crime they committed, but they managed to bamboozle the counselor into thinking they were going "the straight and narrow" in the future.
Realistic?? Is her brother a brute beast, less than the value of a dog? Even the animal rights activists would be up in arms if you shot a dog that was rabid!
The person needs help. Comfort. A safe place, and soft reassuring. If that is not possible, then it may be that he has a brain tumor or something of that degree, that has made him completely helpless.
And that is STILL not any reason to kill him.
Com'on! Why can't people THINK? Killing people is not the solution to problems in society.
Peace.
brian
If you must know - here's the situation.
My brother has been a heavy substance abuser for many years. ANY substance he could get his hands on.
Prior to becoming an addict, he seemed normal. He graduated from college with a degree in History, got married, started working, the whole nine yards.
Somewhere along the way, he snapped. Since he lived several hours away from the family, and since his wife was not open with us at all, we did not know the full extent of his addictions, or his mental issues. We DID know, however, that he was disrespectful, rude, inflammatory, and bitter toward his family and toward employers. He lost several jobs along the way.
We became increasingly concerned about him and met with his wife about possible treatment options - but in the end she wouldn't cooperate and legally there was nothing we could do about getting him treatment.
He has been diagnosed with a Cluster B personality disorder (sociopath) as well as schizophrenia. His medical team believes that his schizophrenia is self induced - via his substance abuse.
Now he is so dangerous that even the professionals at the facility he is in are afraid to be left alone with him.
By the way - he does not have a brain tumor. He has a fried brain. Big difference.
The last time I met with him (last week) he kept telling me and my mother that he was seeing AK 47s floating around on the glass partition that separated him from us.
Errrrrr...you can take him home with you if you like and be all sweet and comforting and loving with him. That would be against the advice of professionals, however.
No one is talking about KILLING him because he's a nuisance or a brute beast by the way. All we're talking about is the most EXTREME measure in the most EXTREME circumstance. If all else fails in other words, we have the right to protect ourselves and our families.
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