Sunday, November 6, 2011

SHOULD PEOPLE WITH ALTZHEIMERS & DEMENTIAL OWN GUNS?

There are always times in our lives when we need to be protected from ourselves. A wise person recognizes those times and does something about it. People suffering from Altzheimers and dementia frequently don't.

On the other hand, there's not much more threatening to an individual than the prospect of losing control over their mind. For an Altzheimers sufferer who finds security in the ownership of a firearm, being deprived of that sense of security would be a difficult burden to accept. Their concerns for personal safety are very real and their anguish deserves validation and respect.

Our society already prohibits felons and certain persons with mental health hospitalizations from owning firearms. Those prohibitions are based on the notion that certain groups of individuals are incapable of safe and responsible firearm ownership. Adding Altzheimers and dementia sufferers to the list of people prohibited from owning a firearm makes sense from a safety standpoint, but let's not lose sight of the fact that we'd be negatively impacting the lives of some of those patients in the process.

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