Boom. There is nothing else to say.
“You know, it’s amazing, I got a letter form a mother in my district, and that mother has a bipolar child who is schizophrenic. She fears for her life and the lives of her neighbors every day. The mental health system in the state of New York has failed her repeatedly. It’s a kangaroo system, where that child will be treated like a number, a ticking time bomb to go off. And that single mother doesn’t have the support of this state or that system to care for that child.
And tonight we preach about saving lives.
Not long ago, I think a woman was in Georgia. She has several young children. Her husband showed her how to shoot. Somebody broke into her home and came after her. She shot him I believe six times. Tonight, we’re going to pass legislation that if she had eight rounds in that chamber instead of seven, she’d be a criminal. We haven’t saved any lives tonight — except for one: the political life of a governor who wants to be president. We have taken an entire category of firearms that are currently legal and are in the homes of law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. As a legislature that believes in its power to the extent where you actually profess that you are magically saving lives, we are now turning those law-abiding citizens into criminals — and tomorrow hoping that on the front page we will be seen as preventing tragedies. Yet that single mom will wake up tomorrow with that bipolar child who is schizophrenic and mentally ill — and we will have done nothing. Good night,” (Sen. Greg Ball, Jan 15, 2013).
I agree with State Senator Bell completely.
But… this is a slippery slope for your stated ideology, Doug. The kind of mental illness many (if not most, or even all) these “madmen” have isn’t covered by insurance, and many of them don’t have any insurance, so we would essentially be asking the government to take care of them. Which I have no problem with. Society should be protecting the weak, the sick, the infirmed, and the mentally ill. Though I will also totally agree that the lazy and the unscrupulous have no place at that table.