What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Yeehaw!
Texans can now open carry guns into Texas state mental hospitals. Hell, child, even law enforcement checks their guns before they enter state mental hospitals. Cops aren’t carrying in the hospital but Jim Bob and Rufus can go duck hunting out the windows of Ward D.
Visitors to one of Texas’ 10 state mental health hospitals will be allowed to openly carry weapons into the facilities, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Employees and patients will still be barred from bringing in weapons.
The majority of the patients in the hospitals are civilly-committed — not criminally — so most of the facilities don’t have armed security guards, though some do, said Mitchell, whose group monitors the state hospitals. Police officers entering the hospitals routinely do not bring in their firearms, she said.
Republicans claim that it is the duty of the state hospital to “ensure that the patients are not around dangerous weapons.” Now how are the hospitals supposed to do that? Chain gun toters to the entryway wall?
Hell, mental hospitals were the last refuge of safe places to be away from people with guns.
Check that off the list.
What will Matt Rinaldi propose next? Open Carry in all hospitals with an obstetrics floor…..
While Congress grapples with the guns vs mental health issue, Matt has the answer. /s
Maybe we could improve on Matt’s plan. When the gun humpers show up at the mental hospital, strip them of their guns and commit them.
1PKM: Bam! Nailed it. And I love commitment ceremonies… all the flowers… and music… and… wait, what?
2Can’t wait for the story about an open carry that lets a patient get his gun and shoots the dimwit, and the patient can’t tried for it cuz he’s a mental patient!!!! OH! and no I don’t want the dimdude dead but seriously knee capped so he remembers for a long time what stupid means.
3Republicans claim that it is the duty of the state hospital to “ensure that the patients are not around dangerous weapons.”
I guess it’s also the duty of us walking down the street or shopping at market or visiting someone in the mental hospital to make sure WE aren’t around dangerous weapons. My favorite way to do that would be to restrict the ability to buy and carry around dangerous weapons, but the Republicans have some other idea.
Suggestion: put all the Republicans who think that way into mental hospitals and let them figure it out. Or not. But not at our expense.
4“Republicans claim that it is the duty of the state hospital to ‘ensure that the patients are not around dangerous weapons.'”
Yep, because obviously that’s not the responsibility of the state fto ensure that patients of STATE institutions not be around from dangerous weapons. Perish the thought!
After all, the MAJORITY of these folks aren’t criminally committed. And that minority will think to themselves, “Well, I’d better not freak out the other patients, they’ve got enough troubles. So I won’t grab that gun Bubba toted in here when he came for a visit. Breaking out of this joint isn’t worth upsetting these poor folks.”
And hey, PKM – – I like your plan a whale of a lot better than that of the “Department of State Health Services.” Gotta love how Republicans create all these cute euphemisms.
5I’m waiting for them to allow open carry in the state houses….
6Rhea:Suggestion: put all the Republicans who think that way into mental hospitals and let them figure it out. Or not. But not at our expense.
Honey, everything Republicans do is at OUR expense.
7To your question: Chain gun toters to the entryway wall?
8To this I answer: YES!!!
How about Prisons? Shouldn’t people visiting prisons have the right to openly carry firearms?
For that matter, the Second Amendment advocates keep asking “what part of ‘shall not be infringed’ do you not understand?” If one reads “shall not be infringed” literally, how can one deny prisoners their Second Amendment rights? After all, there’s lots of bad guys in prisons…
9What kind of a moron would sign such language into law? Seriously?
10No chains are too interactive. Big ol’ magnets, now that would probably work.
11If you can’t take Mohammed(nuts) to the mountain(guns), take the mountain(guns) to Mohammed(nuts).
12maggie-I’m gonna guess any number of wingnuts would sign this law.
13Desperately lacking in critical thinking skills, those republicans are. And the rest of us have to suffer for it.
14Bernie’s right, we need a revolution, but not just financial.
The right to life supersedes 2nd amendment. Common sense anyone?
To the question as to who would sign such legislation into law, the answer is fairly simple. It’s a sop to the people who voted the legislator into office and a pat to the rocks they crawled out from under to do it.
15When I was a paramedic, a mental hospital patient was given a short furlough at home. At home he took a shotgun down to the stock tank and shot himself. Speaking as the person who had to try to save his life (it didn’t work) I think everyone who thinks open carry in mental hospitals is a good idea should have to work on someone who’s shot himself in the gut with a 12 gauge and try to save their life.
The visual, olfactory, and tactile effect of the wounds–which in deference to JJ’s mother I won’t get any more realistic about (though, blast it, it needs to be said and people need to recoil)–might change some minds. The rest of them should be locked in a building with bulletproof walls and windows until the shooting stops and their loved ones are allowed to come in and see what’s left.
Actually I’d like a Constitution (state and national) that required all legislative candidates to volunteer for ambulance and emergency room trauma runs for a year, including post-death visits to families.
16Elizabeth Moon –
They should also have to do a week trying to teach in a public school classroom.
And EVERYONE should have to do a week every year as a retail clerk and/or a food server. Including living on the wages/tips.
17@Elizabeth Moon
Thanks for the thought, “Actually I’d like a Constitution (state and national) that required all legislative candidates to volunteer for ambulance and emergency room trauma runs for a year, including post-death visits to families.”
I have thought and said since the 1970s that such a Constitutional test should stand for those that wish to serve as POTUS. That is no one should be allowed to candidate for office that has not mailed at least one letter to a grieving family explaining the death of their child in combat in a foreign country. This whole scene should be in the mind of POTUS as s/he sits around the table plotting the right way to deal with an obstinate other country.
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