zlacker

While I agree with everything you've just said, I'm not sure what the answer is. You have to go and purchase a gun, it's extremely difficult to manufacture one yourself. So, there's a point of control, where we can check people (including, yes, for mental illness).

But mental illness itself has no check point. How can we ensure that people do not have untreated Schizophrenia? Mandatory checks for everyone once a year? I'm really not sure how it could be done.

>>untog+(OP)
It is increasing less difficult to manufacture a gun or really anything else that can do mass damage. 3D printers will become a reality and any lockouts won't last any longer than the DRM on a DVD.

We haven't put the money into brain research to figure out if there is a test we could do. Checkpoints are the easy part. Look at all the places we test for drugs (employment, school sports). If we figured out the mythical dipstick that tells if your brain chemistry is broken, I would imagine it would come up in a lot places that drug testing does now and probably be part of peoples regular checkups. We just don't have a clue and no amount of dealing with the how will fix the problem, we need to get the courage to look at the why.

>>untog+(OP)
All the gun control in the world doesn't prevent you from getting someone else to buy you a gun (or getting one on the second hand market). I'm certain if we banned guns completely there would be a drop in gun violence, but tragedies like this are clearly a mental issue and I think they would probably just drive their car through a playground at recess if they didn't have a gun.

>>protom+21
Chambers and barrels will be very difficult to print, they have to be forged or machined because of the extreme stresses involved.

EDIT: That article you linked to discusses a 3d printed lower receiver. That part of the rifle does not have the barrel and chamber. The part of the ar with the barrel and chamber is called the upper.

>>untog+(OP)
> But mental illness itself has no check point. How can we ensure that people do not have untreated Schizophrenia? Mandatory checks for everyone once a year? I'm really not sure how it could be done.

You can't ensure that every single person that has a mental disability gets treatment, but as a society we do not support easy access to mental health treatment. Mental health services, like physical health services, are pay to play and that provides a huge barrier for people with mental disability, esp. since some amount of those people will have a very hard time affording such treatment and/or medication. Consider also that folks with mental disability tend to have less robust support networks of family of friends and that mental health care has stigma attached to it for most of the US population.

The best option is to reduce the difficult of getting mental health care treatment as much as possible: universal health care, public awareness campaigns to fight against social stigma, and more robust social services.

>>dmm+W2
http://blog.makezine.com/2012/12/06/3d-printed-gun-fires-rea...

[edit:] http://defensedistributed.com

>>ry0ohk+E1
Require a license to buy a gun first or second hand, or own a gun. Require a mental health exam to get the license (in addition to the usual background/felony check). Make the license free or close to it.

Do all of that, and anyone who tries to buy a gun without a license can safely be assumed to be up to no good. You don't even need to license firearms themselves, which is unpopular.. just the owner themselves.

Most of these nutters are buying their guns legally. Hell, I bet a lot of them buy their guns not even fully realizing what they will eventually do with them.

Illegal sale/ownership of guns is just an issue for the police to handle. I don't think there is much progress to be made on that front.

>>untog+(OP)
People who have untreated schizophrenia tend to reveal themselves with constant crazy behavior.