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Comment by bko | Hacker News Reader

Not sure if I'm reading this right, but it appears that the legislation adds a requirement that veterans deemed unfit require a court hearing before being blocked access to a firearm. If so, this seems like due process.

People who don't like guns want to prevent people from owning them. Those people usually go for the low hanging fruit that appeals to most people like preventing the mentally ill to buy firearms. However it is important to note some unpleasant facts like the fact that 11% of Americans are on some antidepressant and probably many more were on some anti depression medication in the past [0]. Preventing access to those seemed mentally unfit (by some standards) would prevent a significant portion of the us population from owning a firearm. Whether that's right or wrong, I can't say.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/antidepressants-arent-taken-depr...

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This process has been abused by anti-gun localities to strip people of their gun collections for the most MINOR of prescription drug use.

http://reason.com/blog/2013/04/11/take-xanax-lose-your-guns

Also, mentally incapacitated people (including drug users) are a vulnerable population - they are easy prey to criminals, so it would be unfair to deprive them of their means of self-defense. /s

> Those people usually go for the low hanging fruit that appeals to most people like preventing the mentally ill to buy firearms. However it is important to note some unpleasant facts like the fact that 11% of Americans are on some antidepressant and probably many more were on some anti depression medication in the past [0].

I'm not a doctor, but I doubt that, say, "mild depression" or "previous history of depression" is enough to be considered mentally incapacitated. Is every person on anti-depressants mentally incapacitated?

The article highlights suicide rates.

> In 2014, Veterans accounted for 18% of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults, while Veterans constituted 8.5% of the US population. In 2010, Veterans accounted for 22% of all deaths from suicide and 9.7% of the population.

> Approximately 66% of all Veteran deaths from suicide were the result of firearm injuries.

https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/Suicide_Preve...

That's the problem: bureaucrats ARE marking veterans mentally incapacitated precisely because of "mild depression" or "previous history of depression" - and are doing so often that veterans' advocates are finding it necessary to lobby for laws stopping the practice.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you are or you know a veteran, because I find that people outside the VA system don't find believable the things that go on inside the VA system.

>it is important to note some unpleasant facts like the fact that 11% of Americans are on some antidepressant

Its almost as if over prescribing medication to an entire country has negative outcomes.

"Whether that's right or wrong, I can't say."

Let me help you here, letting people owning a gun is 100 % wrong.

100 % of studies prove it.

The second Amendment is prehistoric thing kept around only to make gun producers in business.

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