This morning? Doctor, is that you?
It was slightly ironic as personally I regard Freud as being a more articulate version of Joseph Smith.
(Moses and Monotheism was a book I had to read at U as an example of why the medical profession should stay clear of psychology, anthropology and theology.)
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Iāve not read that book, however, I do remember seeing an episode of Horizon (the BBC Science Programme) where an independent expert was given a pile of scans and asked to group them as he thought appropriate. He identified a group of scans as being very different to the rest.
The researchers then revealed that the scans were all taken of prisoners, and all of the ones the expert had singled out were from prisoners convicted of crimes involving extreme violence; the āhe suddenly snapped and went on a killing spreeā type of crimes. So maybe further research could identify other danger signs.
In this case it became clear that the individuals had been born with ābad brainsā and then exposed to abuse as children. The twist was that the expert, a descendant of Lizzy Borden, turned out to have a ābad brainā himself, but was simply totally unemphatic due to a lack of childhood abuse to set his trigger.
I guess that, in the meantime, gunshop owners could ask, āDo you support Universal Health Care?ā and deny a gun to anyone who answered, āNo!ā 
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I was going for the Mark E Smith approach to lyrics.
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That must be hell on the infrastructure.
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Well sure. If I ride my bike around without brakes and somebody cuts me off and causes a crash I could argue that the brakes wouldnāt have helped.
But its better to have brakes. You can argue individual cases forever.
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No joke. If my wife had access to a gun I would be dead now. Thatās because she flies into these rages every couple of weeks and if there is a knife handy she waves it at people and then a couple of hours later she calms down and denies that anything is wrong.
I donāt know if that is a mental illness or not. The question is irrelevant to me.
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Ideas, newsletter, etc.
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Oh, thatās why all the livestock farmers in my country are giving up! Theyāre not permitted to own guns! No wonder countries with strict gun legislation never have a functioning farming industryā¦
</sarcasm>
Forgive me if Iām overlooking something, but why is owning livestock and living in a rural area a reason for needing a rifle? I grew up in a rural area and most of our neighbours were livestock farmers; none of them had a gun, except the one that had a hunting permit. This was in Germany. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but our gun legislation suggests that this is the rule rather than the exception.
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I guess that, in America, they could cite wild animals; like poomahs.
āDo I want to shoot someone? Nah, fuck it. Iām just crawling back into bed until the world goes away. After I wash my hands exactly three times.ā
The statistical reality of mental illness.
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I donāt own guns because Iām not into range shooting or hunting and I donāt see home invasion as something that is likely enough to happen to worry about. I do support gun ownership though. I even recognize that having guns around likely increases the chance of murder and the lethality of attempted murder, which Iām sure most all NRA members disagree with. I still support gun ownership. I donāt believe society should be a nanny state where everything that is dangerous should be banned. I enjoy alcohol and building high voltage devices (not together). I donāt want either of those taken from me. If someone enjoys hunting, firing at a range, or just collecting and maintaining firearms, they should be able to do that. Some reasonable restrictions on ownership may be necessary (sorry Republicans!), but the terror watch list is not a sound basis for that (sorry Dems!), considering there is no process for appeal and anyone can be stuck on it for any or no reason at all.
For perspective, your chance of death
1 in 7 Heart Disease
1 in 7 Cancer
1 in 28 Respiratory disease
1 in 106 Suicide
1 in 108 Motor vehicle accident
1 in 123 Unintentional poisoning
1 in 158 Falling
1 in 304 Assault by firearm
Firearm death is a remote chance already, but consider most of that is inner city crime among those of low socioeconomic status. Gun control isnāt likely to affect that number much as legal gun ownership isnāt a major factor in those crimes. Unregistered firearms are exceedingly common. In fact, only a very tiny percentage (less than 3%) of gun crimes are committed with legally owned guns. Gun control measures will not be very effective at reducing firearm related mortality. A much better return on investment for time spent and money lobbying would be to address the root causes of inner-city strife or addressing any of the other far more likely causes of death.
Of course, if we actually pushed for legislation based on reason and merit, weād be living in Star Trek level society by now. Instead, weāll be mired in petty divisive issues for the foreseeable future while the rich get richer.
Fun straw man: If you want to have a much greater impact on mortality, ban sugary drinks.
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When Iāve asked on these boards why anyone actually should need to own something like an AR-15, Iāve been told theyāre helpful for killing coyotes or other nuisance animals on ranches. Somehow our ancestors managed to get by with barbed wire.
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This. I canāt get a toehold for coulda-oughtta-shoulda social commentary.
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Itās that evil Evolution thing. Coyotes these days are smarter. Vote Creationism!
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Itās a good thing you personally do so much work in advocacy for mental health treatment as a fundamental human right, right?
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Actually, even if there are no āpoomahsā or other major predators that could endanger humans about, you still have to worry about neighborhood dogs and such.
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Masons, of course.
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