With the Virginia Tech massacre in the headlines endlessly busybody politicians in D.C. feel like they need to do something to make it look like they’re earning their paychecks, so the consensus among both Democrats and Republicans seems to be a ban on guns for the mentally ill.

My question for you folks is: How in the hell is that sort of a ban going to work?

Think about it.  Mental illness is something that is diagnosed medically.  Meaning that a doctor does it, and your diagnosis is covered by doctor-patient confidentiality.  So how are gun sellers going to know who does and does not have a mental condition that disqualifies them from purchasing a firearm?  Are we going to start requiring that psychiatrists report these kind of illnesses to the feds who will keep it all in a big database?  That sounds like a gross invasion of our privacy, not to mention something that would require a huge new federal bureaucracy costing us millions or billions of tax dollars.

Banning people with criminal records from buying guns is one thing as criminal records are public records, but banning gun sales to people with certain medical conditions is a whole new ball of wax.

And who gets to decide what sort of mental disorder does and does not disqualify one from buying firearms?  If I get fired from my job, go to see my shrink and get some Prozac to help me with my depression is someone from the ATF going to show up to take away my weapons?

I don’t think anyone in this country wants guns in the hands of people who are mentally unstable, but what sort of a slippery slope do we put ourselves on if we start turning over our medical records to the feds so they can decide whether or not we’re mentally fit enough to own a shotgun?  Plus, how many of this nation’s infamous shooters have actually been diagnosed with any sort of really serious mental condition before they went on their shooting rampage?  Seems to me that the cliche we usually hear after one of these tragic incidents (though this didn’t hold true with Virginia Tech) is that the person seemed “so normal” to neighbors and friends.

People will want to rally behind a ban on firearms for the mentally disabled, but before we offer our knee-jerk support for such “common sense” legislation I think we ought to consider the consequences of trying to enforce it.