Submitted by Charlton Stanley, guest blogger
(Otteray Scribe)
What is mental illness? It’s a hot topic in the news recently, because of proposed gun control legislation. I saw a photo yesterday of people holding up a huge sign saying, “Keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill.”
There is far more to the demonization of the mentally ill than just the firearms issue. It spills over into the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation. It is not just guns; it is airplanes and trucks as well. This brings us to the core question of, “What is mental illness?” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) is the current handbook for classifying mental disorders. DSM-V is in the final stages of development and will be published in May 2013. That is only next month.
Which brings us back to the original question of what exactly is mental illness? In New York, a man’s home was raided, his Concealed Carry Permit revoked and guns confiscated because someone told the police he was taking an anti-anxiety medication. I have received emails in the past week from several friends about this issue. One of them is a vet, M→F transgendered. She is concerned about being able to renew her own Concealed Carry Permit (CCP). As a veteran and avid target-shooting hobbyist, she is well trained in gun safety and use. As a transgender woman, she is a target and prey according to FBI statistics. Hate crimes against LGBT people are at a 14-year high.
According to the DSM-IV-TR, “Gender Identity Disorder” is one of the mental illnesses. In the DSM-V, it is renamed “Gender Dysphoria.” While claiming it is not a mental illness, the fact that Gender Dysphoria is in the DSM-V in the first place makes it suspect in the eyes of many. Two days ago, she sent this excerpt from a local outlet:
The enforcement action started on March 29th when New York State Police asked the Erie County Clerk’s Office to pursue revoking the man’s pistol permit because he owned guns in violation of the mental health provision of New York’s newly enacted guns law called the SAFE ACT.
The allegation turned out to be untrue and his guns returned to him. As it turned out, the police, sua sponte, initiated the action. The only lawyer involved in the matter was the man’s own attorney.
Erie County Clerk Chris Jacobs said, “When the State Police called to tell us they made a mistake and had the wrong person…it became clear that the State did not do their job here, and now we all look foolish.”
Flaws in the mental health reporting provisions of the NY SAFE Act were blamed for the misunderstanding. The county clerk added, “Until the mental health provisions are fixed, these mistakes will continue to happen” (source: WKBW-TV)
The bigger issue is how come taking an anxiolytic prescribed by one’s family doctor disqualifying? It would be interesting to know just how many of those raiding officers, and their supervisors, are taking medication for anxiety, depression or sleep.
Is mild anxiety a reason to stigmatize someone, and possibly violate his or her civil rights? It gets better. The FAA Medical Examiner will not allow psychiatric medications for any class of Medical Certificate. If a psychiatric medication, it is an automatic disqualification. Several non-psychiatric medications are disqualifying as well. When Tagamet (cimetidine) was first released to treat ulcers and hyperacidity, it disqualified one from holding an FAA Medical Certificate in order to fly. I first heard about that from a friend who was an Aviation Medical Examiner at the time. He told me the FAA put Tagamet on the list because, “It acts on the central nervous system.”
What is mental illness? Some say it is anything that is in the DSM. However, as I have pointed out in court many times, the DSM is a handbook put together by a committee. Everyone has heard the old joke about what a committee produces: “An elephant is a mouse designed by a committee.”
The new DSM-V will be expanding the definition of ADHD. The definition of PTSD is supposed to be clarified in the final definition. Homosexuality was removed from the DSM-IV. If it was a mental illness, the why was it removed? The answer to that is simple. It is not a mental illness.
Let’s look at posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a single example of a single disorder. PTSD is classified as an anxiety spectrum disorder. Symptoms include feeling anxious, vivid dreams or memories of a traumatic event, and avoidance of situations that might remind one of the traumatic event. Those are called “triggers.” Some claim that only combat veterans can suffer PTSD. That is nonsense. The original trauma can be anything causing one to fear for their own life or safety, or that of others. No one knows how many Americans suffer from PTSD, but the NIMH estimates 7.7 million adults have diagnosable PTSD. That is about 3.5% of the population. 22% of Vietnam veterans returned with PTSD. My personal impression is that number is too low by a significant margin. Many people with PTSD have never been diagnosed. Why? Because they are afraid to talk to a doctor or clinical social worker.
How many rights should be taken from all those citizens and veterans, simply because they have PTSD?
When some of the most prominent mental health experts in the world cannot agree what mental illness diagnoses are, how are lawmakers, judges and law enforcement officers supposed to know? Is being transgendered a mental illness? How about homosexuality—oops, never mind, they took that out of the DSM-IV. There are many people with bipolar disorder walking around and you will never know it, especially if they are taking their medication. Should a person with well-controlled bipolar disorder be allowed to drive an 18 wheel truck, fly a light airplane, or own firearms?
It is interesting that the FAA has created a new class of aircraft, call Light Sport Aircraft” or LSA, which do not require an FAA medical certificate to fly. A light sport pilot may fly with a valid and current driver’s license. Glider pilots can exercise the privilege without a medical certificate.
This brings us to driver’s licenses. If a person, who is taking Xanax or some mild anti-depressant is not allowed to own firearms or fly a Cessna 172, why can they drive? An average automobile or pickup truck weighs almost two tons. They drive on two-lane roads at 55 or 60 mph. That means on a two-lane road, they are passing within two to four feet of each other with a closing speed of about 120 mph.
Just what is mental illness, and where is that bright line drawn for different activities and privileges of ownership? Think about it. Your physician has to give you a formal diagnosis in order to write a prescription for any medication. Almost any Primary Care Physician, especially family doctors, will tell you that a large percentage of their patients are receiving medications for diagnosed psychiatric conditions. The most common are depression and anxiety, either situational or endogenous.
Alcohol, in my opinion, is much more dangerous than any antidepressant or anxiolytic on the market. Yet, alcohol is legal in most areas. The individual is responsible for keeping their alcohol level under the legal limit, without any government official monitoring them. The rule for pilots is, “eight hours from bottle to throttle.” In other words, if you intend to fly, there should be at least eight hours between the last drink and flying. My rule was always 24 hours just to be on the safe side. Alcohol is involved in far more assaults, shootings, auto crashes, and suicides than any psychiatric medication I know of. That is because alcohol is a disinhibitor.
It is unfortunate that Congress saw fit to suppress data collection on firearms violence back in 1996. I see many pronouncements on violence related to firearms, but without real science, those pronouncements are meaningless. Last January, President Obama lifted the 17-year drought on data gathering. Some members of Congress and the NRA are demanding that the data not be used to promote or advocate any position on violence. Fine. That is the way data should be gathered—content neutral. That honors the null hypothesis approach to research. However the results of the data fall, it should be accessible to other researchers. It must not be buried.
Legislation and administrative rules that limit rights are already having negative effects on people with mental health issues. They do not get treatment, or ask their doctor for advice. Sometimes they lie. Sometimes a patient will show up, insist on paying cash, register under a John Doe alias, give a vacant lot as an address and use 888-88-8888 for a Social Security number. Most people who need mental health medications or treatment refuse to seek help. If anyone thinks that is a good thing, they are not paying attention.
As my father used to say, “Anybody with one eye and half-sense could have seen that one coming.”
HIPAA is supposed to keep your records private, but they are accessible with a court order. Alternately, any agency issuing a license or certificate can insist on the applicant signing a HIPAA complaint medical release form. Sign the form or you do not get your license. One must always beware the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Here are a few tidbits to chew upon. Please discuss. Where is that bright line?
“Think about it: We are a nation that is regularly bombing others, and often killing many civilians. As the Council on Foreign Relations noted, that is bound to generate retributive violence. We are also a heavily armed nation whose political and entertainment media is filled with apocalyptic rhetoric and rogue-celebrating storylines that glorify violence. In that sense, it is amazing (and incredibly fortunate) that there haven’t been more mass terrorism events in America.” David Sirota
No injuries from that bomb.
A third bomb just went off at the JFK library. That’s all I know at the moment.
RWL, If it is homemade and organic, It probably would not be detected through the usual means so domestic terrorism is more likely.
This story goes directly to what I said in reply to Bob, Esq. at 1:41 PM.
Those intent on violence and massive harm will always find a way. It is the same with suicide. Anyone intent on suicide will find a way, eventually.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/15/explosion-reported-near-finish-line-boston-marathon-spokesman-says/
Police have a person of interest who is being detained, according to Fox News.
Multiple explosive devices found, at least 2 which exploded, officials tell NBC News. Two are confirmed dead.
Fox News reporting that one of the devices (bombs) appear to be homemade, according local police.
I won’t bore you with the wikipedia and the FBI’s definition of Domestic Terrorism, but these acts clearly fit the profile.
There was a guy at the Fulton State Mental Hospital who went in to the regular part at age 7 and then into Biggs Maximum Security at age 12 only to be released at age 35 with the understanding that he was not mentally retarded or deficient and not insane. One of his last diagnosis was bipolar disorder. One of his cousins bought two masks, one of a grizzy kind of polar bear and the other of a pure white polar bear. The kid put them onto a hood so that one mask was forward looking and the other to the rear. Our ex patient put it on and was henceforth known as Polar George.
Many folks who carry the diagnosis are smokers. They are hyper and sometimes get into meth and other things not good for them. I dont see the doctors telling them to quit smoking. They prescribe a variety of pills on behalf of big pharma. If you have a doctor and he does not tell you to quit smoking then he is not a real doctor but a Fraud with Freudian delusions of grandeur.
Some are saying it is a natural gas explosion.
RWL, It may not be a terrorist at all. We don’t know.
RWL Are you sure it is a domestic terrorist attack? Sometimes initial reports are not accurate.
SWM,
Since we, USA, sell weapons to every country on Earth, I find it hard to believe that ‘international terrorism’ exist.
Bob,
If the FAA is using the logic of equal protection, the reasoning falls apart. If that were the case, all medicals would be the same, and the LSA and glider classes would not exist. I have flown thousands of feet higher in a sailplane than I have ever flown in anything but a commercial airliner. LSA and glider ratings require a current and valid driver’s license; that’s all.
Domestic Terrorist Attack at the Boston Marathon!
Bob,
Thanks … I got your email too … (and how is Pete?)
“And the reason they’re absurd is that the laws prohibiting their possession are rationally related to a legitimate state purpose.”
Refers to absurd example earlier in email. Just ignore.
Blouise,
The 154 rounds were irrelevant.
Here’s something I emailed Pbh51(Pete) about a month ago regarding passing laws that are rationally related to a legitimate state purpose.
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“And the reason they’re absurd is that the laws prohibiting their possession are rationally related to a legitimate state purpose. For example, let’s look at tracer rounds. These are bullets that literally leave the barrel on fire so as to trace their trajectory. Are they legal in New York? Well, it’s illegal to hunt with tracer rounds and it’s illegal to possess them in NYC. Is that enough? Personally, I don’t think so. Why? Because a tracer round is particularly far more dangerous than an ordinary bullet. Ever watch Mythbusters? There’s an episode where they check the myth of shooting a propane tank to make it explode. What if I told you that the only time they got the propane tanks to explode was by hitting it with a tracer round?
See the problem with tracer rounds? Propane tanks, gas tankers, etc., etc. Outlawing tracer rounds is perfectly sound under the rational relation test.
Now consider magazines capable of carrying more than 10 rounds that you can legally fire. Or limiting the amount of rounds to 7 at one time in a ten round clip. That’s a law based more on hysteria than rationality. The magazine does not increase lethality; it’s simply a matter of convenience.
Take Newtown for example. If I asked you to tell me how the Bushmaster (whatever) was the proximate cause of making Adam Lanza more lethal than without such a weapon, you’d probably say that he only had to reload four times. However, that’s not a proximate cause of lethality. His victims were cornered and vulnerable within the classrooms. He could have killed the same amount of people with 3 or four handguns and some extra clips on his person. Six year olds don’t fight back and those in charge of their care would probably be the first to die. You can’t make the argument ‘but for that bushmaster’… because he could have done the same with handguns. I know you don’t want to hear it, but if you take a step back and look at it with objective eyes, you’ll see that I’m right.
The tracer round; however, is a ‘but for’ cause for blowing up fuel tanks. A regular bullet will not cause them to explode. So, let’s say Adam Lanza decided to show up at a school picnic where the kids were gathered round a large cooking grill for lunch that was powered by large propane tanks. He takes aim with a tracer round and kills 30 people nearest to the explosion. What killed the kids? Adam Lanza and specifically the tracer round.
Not every tragedy can be assuaged and prevented by the passage of a law.
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OS,
Per the Class III, seems to me that OK City is applying their own version of the equal protection clause. Although I do see the merit of your arguments. Doesn’t the FAA provide for an appellate review?
Per the Sandy Hook shooter; he had a 7 foot long spread sheet on how to maximize the number of deaths. You’re absolutely right about the jugs of gasoline.
Raff,
He killed 26 people; not 154. Due to the fact he was shooting fish in a barrel he could have accomplished the same thing with three handguns and four rounds to spare in the third magazine of ten rounds. The type of weapon used by the perp was not the proximate cause of the deaths of those people in Sandy Hook.
Further, as OS pointed out, basing legislation on appeal to emotion is no way to run a government. It’s as idiotic and disgraceful as mob rule.
To me the problem is that diagnosis of mental illness is very subjective. Even the MMPI can be answered in such a way as to be interpreted the way the doctor wants the results to come out.
(Questions like part of “my face is numb” and “I have pain all the time” were answered “Yes.” by me. I have numb face from a surgical procedure, and at that time constant chronic pain from trigeminal neuralgia. Questions like “I cannot hold a job” were true because I was disabled by the pain. It was interpreted that I had big psych issues. (When I took the test again, on my own, and answered those kinds of questions as they were to be answered “No.” the results were different and I was deemed a lot “healthier”.
They had me take the test when a neurosurgeon wanted to do what turned out to be a mini frontal lobotomy, allegedly for the pain “You will still have the pain, you just will not care that you do>” but his hidden agenda was to make me unable to be a witness in my malpractice case against a neurosurgeon.)
I can give too many other examples where other ussues were at play, as opposed to honest assessment.
As long as there are no blood tests and other objective criteria, the line for “mental illness” falls on too great a spectrum and the demons/desires/needs of the psychiatrist and testers.
Bob, Esq.
I am definitely not grouping the Class I Medical Certificate with anything else. Those are stringent and need to be, but even then, some get through who shouldn’t. For those who don’t know what we are talking about, the Class I Medical Certificate is for pilots who fly transport planes, and who must have an Air Transport Pilot license. As one flight instructor put it, “It’s like getting a doctor’s degree in flying.”
We could even throw in the Second Class Medical if you like. That is for the average commercial pilot who flies smaller planes than airliners. The commercial (2nd Class) ticket will allow a pilot to fly for hire.
The 3rd Class Medical Certificate is for a private pilot who does not fly for hire. The equivalent of the ordinary Sunday driver. That is the one I am advocating for. If I can drive a car, truck or motorcycle to the airport, how come I cannot get in a small plane that is the equivalent of the family car, and go see the grandkids a two hour flight away? Yet it is just fine for me to make that same trip on the highway, in crowded traffic, which takes five or six hours instead of two?
As for the “appeal to emotion” fallacy. That never worked for me. I am too much of an analytical thinker. It was appeal to emotion that got us the despicable “Patriot Act,” the Department of Homeland Security, and the TSA.
Regarding assault weapons, handguns and the like. I am reasonably certain the Sandy Hook shooter was so intent on committing those murders, we should consider being thankful he used a gun. What if he had been unable to access the guns he had? There is no doubt in my mind he would have found an alternative weapon. What if he had gone into that classroom with two or three one-gallon milk jugs of gasoline?
Bob,Esq.,
I understand your comments, but I am confused on a couple of points. After which school or mass shooting do we start the statute of limitations in order to attempt to take action to prevent further killings? There have been over 20 school shooting alone just since Columbine, but you suggest that acting now so soon after Sandy Hook is relying on emotion. I think that this discussion on reasonable gun control is long overdue and Sandy Hook is just the latest sad example of why the debate and legislation is necessary now.
Also, you suggested that he could have done the same damage by carrying 4 handguns. Weren’t there 154 rounds expended at the scene? Can you possibly shoot 154 rounds with four handguns without using high capacity magazines? I think the emphasis should be on the perp and the tools he used to carry out this massacre.
Should Read: “you’re not only talking about the pilots themselves, but pilots responsible for the lives of their passengers on commercial airlines.”