Comments Elsewhere

From kinkykinkshamer.tumblr.com, via Marja Erwin: “Count me in the less than 10% of Americans who oppose comprehensive background checks for gun purchases. And if you really are as liberal or left wing as you say you are, you should oppose them too. “Why? Well, for one thing, they would not have caught everyone who committed a mass shooting. For another, what are the two groups they would disarm? Ex-convicts and the ‘mentally ill.’ In other words, two marginalized groups. The first group, ex-convicts, are disproportionately poor, disproportionately people of color, disproportionately LGBT, and disproportionately people with disabilities. Also, a huge number of people who are sent to prison, including people convicted as “felons” are there for completely non-violent crimes. Excuse me for not wanting to disarm members of oppressed groups who haven’t ever done anything violent. The other group, the ‘mentally ill’? First off, it’s a pretty broad category. Second, it’s a group that already sees their privacy rights and other civil liberties severely undermined. Furthermore, ‘The absolute risk of violence among the mentally ill as a group is very small… only a small proportion of the violence in our society can be attributed to persons who are mentally ill (Mulvey, 1994)’ and ‘People with psychiatric disabilities are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent crime (Appleby, et al., 2001). People with severe mental illnesses, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or psychosis, are 2 ½ times more likely to be attacked, raped or mugged than the general population (Hiday, et al.,1999).’”