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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 23, 2025

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That is not a plan.

That's the proposal. The answer to "I know this guy is going to do something bad but I can't prove it in court, so I want to take away his rights anyway" is "no". That's true whether it's liberty, speech, or guns.

That sounds like a plan. That sounds like you want this to be adjudicated in court instead. Explore that! Examine the consequences! Thank about it! Is it better? Worse?

I haven't seen good faith engagement from you in ages in this conversation. You clearly imply that some infringements on the right to bear arms is reasonable but you don't want to admit what that is then you later try and imply that you don't. Those are incompatible and you must pick.

I haven't seen good faith engagement from you in ages in this conversation. You clearly imply that some infringements on the right to bear arms is reasonable but you don't want to admit what that is then you later try and imply that you don't. Those are incompatible and you must pick.

Yes, I've said that an infringement is reasonable if it's a process similar to a felony conviction. And I've said that involuntary commitment is nothing like that. You keep telling me that then I have to solve the problem of people who were involuntarily committed and released buying guns and killing people, or accept that involuntary commitment loses gun rights. And I keep telling you that no, I do not have to solve that problem; that some bad people will get guns is an unavoidable consequence of having a right to keep and bear arms.

So you want to pay the taxes required to run a criminal grade trial on everyone who is involuntary committed so that they can have their guns taken away by a jury of their peers. This would be expensive in a pure trial sense and because it would be slow people would be held unnecessarily - if you can go home after 4 days because the medication worked but you need to stay in the hospital (or be dispo'ed to jail/prison) for ....however many weeks to months it takes to hold an actual trial.... isn't that a worse violation of your rights?

I have repeated this over and over.

If you take gun rights seriously you can

  1. Leave him his guns or

  2. Subject him to trial by jury of his peers.

That doing the first may result in more danger to other people does not rule it out.

  1. Our judicial system is predicated on people not actually going to trial these days. Are you willing to accept the increased cost in taxes to do this, or more likely - a coercive structure that would necessitate a "plea deal equivalent." If so how much financial drain on society is acceptable to you?

  2. What is special about jury trials over other processes? If someone does a bench trial is that acceptable? If a judge rubber stamps a psychiatrists recommendation (the likely outcome of a push for a trial process) is that acceptable? How do you want this to actually happen? This is not a simple logistical thing you are suggesting.

  3. Being involuntarily committed requires some level of poor judgement and insight and lack of responsibility. Sometimes it is obviously disqualifying "I'm going to kill my neighbor doc" sometimes it is debatably disqualifying "I'm going to kill myself doc" (as feelings on suicide are complicated, even if our society has staked a view on this topic) sometimes it is something more like "I need you to calm down so I can help discharge you" "fuck you bitch cunt go fuck yourself" (in the setting of clear threat to self or others). A pro-2A MAXIMALIST might have no problem with someone who is overtly dangerous, foul tempered, and irresponsible owning a gun. Fine.

BUT.

You need a plan for individuals who are extremely likely to commit violence. Some patients are likely (where likely could means something like 30-70, not a baseline 2% risk of committing a murder) to commit violence. An example is ongoing escalatory stalking and harassment behavior. Seizing their guns and/or preventing them from buying guns gives the victim options while other social processes (like moving away, a restraining order and violations of the same leading to jail time) come into play.

What do you want to do to prevent Nybbler killing man from killing you. He gets discharged by the judge from the Psych hospital because he hasn't attacked anyone in the hospital. The Psychiatrist has a duty to warn by law to tell you hey I think this guy is at high risk of killing you. Guy goes home, everyone knows he is going to go kill you, how do you stop him? If you call the police they'll say "has he done anything yet?" or maybe "file a restraining order." That's shitty.

This is not theoretical. I've seen patient situations similar to this where the whole hospital goes "shit that guy is going to kill someone" but we can't do anything about it. Then we read about it on the news or treat the victim.

That's with the current state. It gets worse with guns involved.

This is a common sense restriction.

I suspect your issue is of the cathedral and woke politics - you don't trust Psychiatrists to appropriately judge if someone is really in need of an involuntary commitment. I'm sure they get it wrong sometimes just like felony convictions, but:

Can you produce any evidence that people getting guns being taken away from them because of involuntary commitment inappropriately is occurring with any degree of frequency?

Our judicial system is predicated on people not actually going to trial these days. Are you willing to accept the increased cost in taxes to do this, or more likely - a coercive structure that would necessitate a "plea deal equivalent." If so how much financial drain on society is acceptable to you?

Orthogonal. People who plead guilty to felonies still get their rights taken away, just as people who are convicted at trial do.

Being involuntarily committed requires some level of poor judgement and insight and lack of responsibility.

It actually doesn't, as in the case I know where someone took a prescribed drug which caused psychotic symptoms. But even if that were so, a lot of things do. Showing some level of poor judgement and insight and lack of responsibility is not per se grounds for revoking a fundamental right.

You need a plan for individuals who are extremely likely to commit violence.

No, I actually don't. I do not need to create a group of second-class citizens who are allowed to do anything any normal citizen can do EXCEPT buy them a gun, and assign people to that group on the word of a group of medical professionals. I simply don't. And if you really were a strong advocate of the Second Amendment and were serious about the right to keep and bear arms, you wouldn't either. But instead, to you, while liberty of person is something that shouldn't just be taken away so lightly, guns are. So you are not a strong advocate of the Second Amendment.

What do you want to do to prevent Nybbler killing man from killing you.

If I weren't in New Jersey, I could shoot him when he shows up. Not 100% chance of success, but better than if he's coming to stab me and I'm unarmed.

This is a common sense restriction.

And that is what all the gun-grabbers say.

It actually doesn't, as in the case I know where someone took a prescribed drug which caused psychotic symptoms. But even if that were so, a lot of things do. Showing some level of poor judgement and insight and lack of responsibility is not per se grounds for revoking a fundamental right.

I don't think we are going to get on the same page about this, but as a fact matter - if your friend was psychotic under the influence of a substance at that time he had poor judgement and insight, if they were committed involuntary (the correct response to oh holy shit the walls are talking to me is to you know, get help).

One of the challenges of managing society in general is what to do with people who are "fine" most of the time but dangerous while in a certain state (like decompensated mental illness, tripping balls, or just pissed off).

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