General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: NYS Gun Law includes requirements for Mental Health Professionals to report patients [View all]riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)A lot of it is intuition and experience. If professional therapists are now supposed to act as arbiters of who is safe to own a gun and who is not, I would imagine that more than a fair few of them will opt out of taking on that responsibility. Especially if they don't call it exactly right and will end up getting sued (or maybe even prosecuted for negligence).
With NY now making a law that mental health professionals must be part of the legal process of who gets "reported" and who does not, then I'm sure some will simply stop talking to any clients where that call may be ambiguous.
James Holmes' psychiatrist getting sued appears to me to be a harbinger of what's to come and will have a chilling effect, especially in light of NY's new law.
As for the NY law itself? I like a lot of it but the mental health aspect of it won't work and is probably detrimental at minimum to really helping solve that problem. Other DUers who are currently involved with mental health issues either personally or professionally have already chimed in on this thread so I won't duplicate their wise words.
As for me, the ONLY commonality with ALL of these shootings is easy access to guns and ammo. So as far as I'm concerned THAT'S where we need to start focusing, immediately.