This isn't a question this is just me airing out my frustrations for a particular thing I keep seeing a lot with guns.
I'm going to say it right now why does everyone keep suggesting disabling the weapon and returning it back to the owner what would happen if the owner of a gun decides to point the gun at an officer even if it's disabled the officer doesn't know that he's going to deliver fire and the person that just pointed a weapon will be dead And don't get me started on putting blanks in guns blanks can potentially be dangerous as well also if you fire off a weapon at an officer and they don't know again that it's fake they're going to shoot back and they will be within their right to do so please people can we at least make a conscious decision together as human beings when we have a problem with our seniors becoming mentally ill that we don't return their weapons to them under any circumstances unless we can confirm they were just sick and not a threat to themselves or others or suffering from dementia Or Alzheimer's or any other disease that affects their mind including schizophrenia I don't mean to sound incredibly mean and write this long winded rant but I think I've seen so many terrible decisions happen that I think it's fair that I just make the argument of why why do we give back their weapons I think it's fair to be reasonable and take it away and never return it if they really are a danger to themselves because they will become a danger to others as well that's it that's all I had to say on this rant
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Are referencing a particular incident? Did it happen in your family?
When my SFIL got Lewy Body dementia from his Parkinsons, he had all sorts of hallucinations and delusions that people were out to get him. We were working with social services to get him appropriate care. They wouldn't send anyone over unless we confirmed there were no firearms in the home. There were, and we removed them (he had threated to shoot us at one point).
Of course, any wise person wouldn’t return a gun, knife, etc. to a person with cognitive impairment.
Are their ignorant people in this world that don’t do what they should do in these situations? Yep!
Unfortunately, tragedies happen. I agree with you that prevention is the best way to deal with these situations.
it rhymes.
dont give it back. Pretty simple. If you don’t want to harbor the weapon, find a legal way to dispose of it.
break it down .
suicide by police is or was a thing..
I'm sure I've missed a few arguments. Bottom line is nothing will ever sway the opinion of those people and the rest of us probably already agree with you.
I have encouraged anyone that mentions weapons of any kind that they should be removed from the house (best option) or locked up.
I have also said that when a call is made to 911 that the person making the call needs to inform the dispatcher if there are weapons in the house and make sure that they are aware, and inform the officers responding that the person has dementia (typically these are the posts that I reply to) and that there are NO weapons in the house. If there are weapons in the house they need to inform the dispatcher of that as well.
I fully accept that people have the "right" to keep a weapon but once the person can no longer make safe decisions then the "right" to keep a weapon is taken away. It is up to family to make the decision to remove the weapon or make it inaccessible to the person.
And a "disabled" gun is just as deadly as a functioning one, just in another respect.
The same thing goes for driving a vehicle. Once a person is no longer able to make safe decisions they lose the "right" to drive. And taking that a step further they lose the right to live alone in their house.
And one more step down this slippery slope...once family is no longer safe caring for them at home the safest solution is to place them in Memory Care. (please note this is for someone with dementia not other mental illness)
If the answer was 'yes' and grandpa, grandma, or the weird adult child who still lives at home but doesn't work keeps a firearm, I turned the postition down. My personal policy is the home that needs homecare coming in doesn't need guns there. I don't get near that kind of mess. I will not send one of my caregivers into a house if there are guns in it either. I have made a few exceptions to that rule if the house the client lives in also has a police officer living in it.
When people start getting stubborn, ornery, unreasonable, or are no longer fully independent - take the guns away.
Don't disable it or let them keep the firearm but take away the bullets and here's why. Grandma or grandpa is going to point it at someone like maybe a police officer or an armed private citizen they're going to get shot.
Now, I don't care about politics and certainly don't care about identity politics. I'll give one view though. If someone is pointing a gun (even if it's fake or disabled) and get shot by the police, they have it coming.
So take the guns of certain homes.
Fascinated by your comments below, and have to say it never occurred to me!
Yet and all, my daughter, whose son is now 24, started out by asking early on of his friend's families whether or not there were guns in their house and what safety measures they had in place.
She lives in a State with a ton of hunting and fishing, and she just thought it best. I think few elders meet their demise or take out others with gunplay, but it is COMMON with children, and this is a precaution she took before letting my grandson play at the homes of others.
She never actually got awful feedback. And one person actually thought about the efficacy of a gun "hidden, loaded, on a high closet shelf. She always started out just by saying she wanted to assure people that there were no guns at her own house, and to ask blah blah............