This week the Governor of Florida is being asked to sign HB-1355 into law.
HB-1355, a reaction to what happened last year in Connecticut, is similar to legislation proposed in Iowa this year and is something that we may be dealing with again next year.
HB-1355 would vastly expand the growing list of “prohibited persons” in Florida who are blocked from possessing firearms – over 100,000 gun owners would lose their rights.
If a gun owner is voluntarily admitted for a mental health issue and the doctor feels they might be a danger to themselves or others, they will forfeit their gun rights.
This is even if the physician recommends outpatient treatment for the condition.
The doctor would then give the law-abiding gun owner a written notice saying they will be losing their gun rights, whether they AGREE to treatment or not!
No jury, no counsel, no option to confront witnesses – nothing.
The requirement for “involuntary commitment,” as is currently in Florida law, would be thrown out the window along with the requirement for due process in a court before taking your gun rights away.
A recent study by the University of California found that the most highly-trained psychiatrists could only accurately identify potentially violent people 70% of the time.
That means 30% of the time the “experts” were just plain wrong.
But facts don’t mean much to anti-gunners.
They keep finding new ways to encroach, amend, deform, and belittle our Constitutional rights, and they think they have a winner with “mental health restrictions.”
They’re even banking on you thinking “this isn’t about me, I’m not crazy.”
I hope you don’t make that mistake.
That’s because finding and labeling as many people as possible “crazy” is the cornerstone to billionaire-playboy Michael Bloomberg’s agenda.
A study by the National Institute of Mental Health claims that nearly HALF of all Americans will develop a mental disorder.
Just this week it was reported that even caffeine withdrawal is now considered a “mental health disorder!”
You see, their so-called “reasonable restrictions” are nothing but an effort to flag as many gun owners as possible as “mentally unstable,” and strip them of their gun rights.
Hopefully gun owners in Florida can prevail upon Governor Scott to veto this horrible legislation.
Here in Iowa, we faced similar attacks this year and we almost certainly will again.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting this year anti-gun State Senator Wally Horn openly pontificated on ways that the legislature could “prevent” crimes before they occurred.
A short time later, the anti-gunners in the Senate brought forward SF233.
SF233 would have opened the floodgates on who can notify the Department of Public Safety and get your name added to “the list” – the list of those who lose their 2nd Amendment rights.
Social workers, nurses, physician’s assistants…even guidance counselors would have been qualified to make these determinations according to this statute!
Thanks to the fantastic grassroots pressure of the members of Iowa Gun Owners, this bill died in the Senate this year.
However, we are seeing state after state use so-called “mental health reform” as the premier method for advancing gun control – especially in light of the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Anti-gunners are counting on you and I being too afraid to stand up to them when they conceal their agenda with the umbrella of “mental health reform.”
And they will almost certainly be back again next year, beating the same drum.
And so must we.
Like you, we don’t want criminally insane predators carrying guns. That’s why we fight so hard to make it easier for law abiding Iowans to carry.
At the same time – in a day and age where caffeine withdrawal is treated as a ‘mental disorder’ and when at least 30% of mental health diagnoses are flat out wrong – we need to be very careful to ensure that due process is followed.
Allowing virtually anyone who works in the medical industry to have the power to strip your gun rights for life is something that Iowa Gun Owners will always be ready to fight!
If you can help enable IGO to be prepared to fight that fight, please get involved today by joining IGO.
For Freedom,
Aaron Dorr
Executive Director
P.S. Florida Governor Rick Scott has only a few days to veto a bill that would take guns from over 100,000 gun owners in Florida right now.
While unable to pass normal gun control this session in Florida, gun-grabbers are still poised to accomplish their goal using ‘mental health reform’ as their method – hoping that gun owners will just accept it.
Here in Iowa, anti-gunners tried something similar this year, by proposing legislation that would make mandatory reporters out of virtually anyone who works in the medical industry.
While IGO members stopped it this year, rumors are already swirling about anti-gunners making another attempt next session.
Help us stay ready by joining up today, using the icon below, if you haven’t already done so.