oped: IMHO I believe PTSD as well as ADHD are treated by lazy Md's and Psychiatrists with over prescribing of dangerous drugs...in this particular case the Ft Hood shooter was prescribed Ambien which has some really bad side effects ie:
Less common:
- confusion
- confusion about identity, place, and time
- discouragement
- feeling sad or empty
- irritability
Anxiety
crying
irritability
paranoia
- quick to react or overreact emotionally
- rapidly changing moods
- Attack, assault, or force
- lack of feeling or emotion
- delusions
- dementia
By Philip Bump
Reacting to the shooting at Fort
Hood on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner reiterated a popular NRA
talking point: "There’s no question that those with mental health issues
should be prevented from owning weapons or being able to purchase
weapons." Those suffering the same diagnosed illnesses as the shooter
— depression and anxiety — might be surprised by Boehner's willingness
to take away their Second Amendment rights.
Ivan Lopez, the
alleged shooter, was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder
at the base, where he was stationed and lived with his wife. According to CNN,
Lopez "was undergoing a variety of treatments for conditions including
depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances," according to Army Secretary
John McHugh. Lopez "was prescribed drugs that included Ambien" and "was
fully examined last month by a psychiatrist."
An estimated one-in-10 Americans suffers from depression,
according to the Centers for Disease Control. That's about 31 million
people, skewed told older people and women. The National Institutes of
Health puts those suffering from "major depressive disorder" at the lower figure of 14.8 million. As for anxiety? The NIH says that 40 million Americans suffer from that.
Even if Lopez had been diagnosed with PTSD, that's still sweeping up 7.7 million Americans — 2.5 percent of the country. Who John Boehner, it seems, doesn't think should be allowed to have a gun.
That's almost certainly not actually what he believes. His comments, as The Hill's Russell Berman reports,
came in the middle of an event at the Capitol. After saying there was
"no question" that people with mental illness shouldn't be allowed to
buy or own guns, he went on: "we need to continue to look at to find a
way to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them."
In the wake of the Newtown massacre, the NRA reiterated its call for one of the few gun control measures it supports: a database of the "actively" mentally ill,
which gun sellers could use to screen buyers. Such databases exist, but
usually with standards that are far, far more rigorous than anything
Lopez was close to manifesting. Current federal law prohibits those
who've been committed to an institution or officially determined to be
"mentally defective" from buying a gun.
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That
wasn't Lopez. This is the problem with using mental health as the
screen for gun ownership: for many of those who commit acts of random
violence, those acts are the first manifestations of more serious mental
health issues. And, furthermore, as the millions of depressed and
anxious Americans can attest, only a tiny, tiny percentage of those with
mental illness — mild or strong — would ever commit such acts.
But
if Boehner is willing, at last, to support dramatic gun control
efforts, there are almost certainly people on the other side of the
aisle who'd be happy to work with him.
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/04/why-does-john-boehner-want-to-keep-40-million-americans-from-buying-guns/360131/
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