We send letters

Image from The Last of the Millenniums.

Conservatives are getting so maniacal that they can't even read through their tears of rage, as in the case of Mona Charen at the National Review's little shop around the Corner, who reproduces a sad story about guns and mental illness from the Wall Street Journal letters page, under the apparent impression that it supports the NRA line:

I’m the mother of an adult son who suffered from severe and persistent bipolar disorder. His downward course was aided by this country’s broken mental-health system, a system that prevents families from getting loved ones timely, humane treatment. He took his life six years ago.

Judges at commitment hearings would take the easy way out and release him time and time again, ruling he was not an imminent danger to himself or others, many times against the recommendation of the treating psychiatrist. On release, he would eventually resurface in another city, another state, at which time he would again be arrested and the commitment process would start all over again. Most states have such strict commitment laws that it is almost impossible to get people committed for treatment until they are in deep crisis.

Allowing my son to roam the country in his untreated psychotic, bipolar world under the pretense of protecting his civil right to refuse treatment is absurd. He had a civil right to receive treatment even though his illness precluded his ability to recognize he was ill. And the general public also has a right to be protected from the consequences of nontreatment of potentially dangerous mentally ill individuals.

When my son told me of his plan to exercise his constitutional right to bear arms to protect himself from federal agents he felt certain were trying to assassinate him, I feared he might actually purchase a gun and shoot innocent victims he mistook for federal agents. I inquired how to register his name with the appropriate authorities to prevent this from happening; I wanted to at least confirm that his name was in the FBI database that licensed firearms dealers use to run background checks on prospective buyers. Due to the privacy laws, I was unable to even confirm my son’s name was in the database.

Unable to get him treated, unable to prevent him from purchasing a gun, my hands were tied. If we want to prevent the next Newtown, we must reform our mental-health laws. Mental illness is treatable. It doesn’t have to be terminal.

Dottie Pacharis

West River, Md.

I submitted a comment:

I strongly agree with Dottie Pacharis that we have a civil right to medical treatment, including for mental illness, and that absurd "privacy protections" based on a false interpretation of the Second Amendment should not have made it impossible for her to stop her son from buying a gun. A little surprised to see these liberal views advovated here, though--are you folks going wobbly?