Do you think people with mental illness should be banned from buying weapons?

[lynnc35]

Do you think we should make everyone have I.D to buy weapons and prohibit them to anyone with mental illness history?

[vickysue]

Everyone that goes in to buy a gun has to have an id. and unless they are in the system that shows they have a menlal illnes and have no crimial record they can buy a gun. This guy had no record. Its not that guns kill people it  is people that do. But i don't know why the system didn't pick up this person when he was buying so much. That means the gov. system is broken.  Mental illness is hard to detect most of the time.

[bowrunner]

Unfortunately he showed no sign of mental illness but from his picture on TV his eyes look crazy.  It's very difficult to have someone declared mentally ill anyway.

[africanclaudie]

I think there should be a thorough investigation into the gun buyer's background before he/she is able to carry the gun out of the shop. It might take more time, but maybe little tell-tale signs of weirdness would be noticed then.

[amarahs]

i thought there was a rule against people with mental illnesses buying weapons

[valitaw]

Yes, I feel that people that have been deemed mentally unstable should be banned from purchasing and having a gun in their possession. However, how would any one know what their status is; if an ID or background check is all that the store is requiring of you?  Usually the mental status of a person is not mentioned or revealed until after they do something dramatic....like shooting up a few people or made a few terrorist threats.

[cneimsn]

Don't you think that the fact that he was ordering such a large amount of "bullets", that should of raised a red flag for someone out there??  What does the average person out there need with that much ammo ??

[shepherdchik]

I think a lot more in depth back-round check should be done and scrutinized before a gun purchase, including medical history, especially mental illness.. and everyone who disagrees must really think about the consequences and that we should try to keep people safe, not make them worry about going about their normal daily lives like seeing a movie or even walking down the street.

[Abrupt]

Don't you think that the fact that he was ordering such a large amount of "bullets", that should of raised a red flag for someone out there??  What does the average person out there need with that much ammo ??

It is cheaper to buy ammo in bulk.  Also when you buy in bulk you tend to get rounds from the same lot and with the same performance.  If you simply purchase cartridges as you need them you could notice quite a bit of differentiation in the performance of the rounds (typically only of importance when target shooting though). 

[ladycasshmere]

Anyone who is mentally ill should definitely be banned from buying weapons. I have heard too many stories about people being licensed to own a rifle and then someone pisses them off...BOOM. It's scary to think how many weapons gets into the wrong hands these days. How many innocent lives are taken away because of senseless acts of crime.

[demaina]

I agree, but it would depend on what "mental illness" they have.  Besides, there would be no way of preventing a person that hasn't been diagnosed from buying one.  Or from me for buying one for a friend.  It will only go so far.

[raepadilla123]

I agree , i also think th emajority of the population should not own o rpsses fire arms or weapons of any kind

[falcon9]

I agree, but it would depend on what "mental illness" they have.  Besides, there would be no way of preventing a person that hasn't been diagnosed from buying one.  Or from me for buying one for a friend.  It will only go so far.

All very good points; as well as the ability for the "mentally ill" to illegally purchase weapons negating the intent of laws preventing the legal purchase of firearms.

[momoney555]

Supposedly there are already gun laws prohibiting anyone with a recorded history of mental illness to purchase guns.  The problem is that the mental illness has to be on record. There are a lot of mentally unstable people who have never been inside a mental institution.  Sometimes only family members are aware of the problem and many times they dont even want to admit it or talk about it to anyone outside the family.  One key to eliminating this random mass violence could be to identify who is trying to purchase mass weapons and ammo before they get it into their possession. But that would only work if it is purchased all at the same time and from the same place.  Maybe pricing ammo at an extremely high price, like a luxury item, might help also.

[patrick122068]

It's hard to tell when a perfectly sane person will lose their mind and go buy an assault rifle, so i believe that assault rifles should not be sold to the general public, whether they have been diagnosed with mental illness or are completely normal, especially assault rifles that have a large clip or magazine that holds a lot of bullets.