This probably won’t become the law of the land, at least not yet, but it is a harbinger of things to come.
Pa. High Court Weighs Liability for Doctors Whose Patient Carried Out Mass Shooting
The justices have the opportunity to address whether doctors can be held liable under the Mental Health Procedures Act if they begin but fail to complete the process of involuntary commitment when they recognize their patient is “severely mentally ill and a clear and present danger to others.”
In 2012 a man named John Schick shot six people, one fatally, at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh. He had previously sought care with a psychiatric practice and from all accounts they guy was deeply disturbed. The doctors had discussed involuntary commitment and taken some initial steps apparently but never followed through. One of the individuals wounded in the shooting, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Kathryn Leight is suing the doctors under the “Mental Health Procedures Act”. The suit alleges the doctors were negligent because Schick presented a clear and present danger to others and should have been committed prior to the shooting.
Involuntarily committing people used to be reasonably common but now it is a pretty major step. It didn’t help that according to a story about the shooting from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Schick was taking a ton of different medications…
Covering a table in the mostly orderly apartment were at least 43 prescription medications to fight ailments such as depression, anxiety, migraines, seizures, chronic kidney disease, impotence, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, intestinal worms, gastric reflux, ulcers, gallbladder trouble, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic pancreatitis. There were caffeine pills, sedatives, hypothyroid drugs, narcotic painkillers and drugs to treat Hodgkin’s disease. Sources said many of the pills were self-prescribed from online pharmacies overseas.
No wonder he was loony.
The precedent this would set is alarming, dangerous and counter-productive.
If a doctor can be sued or perhaps even lose their medical license if they suspect but fail to sufficiently act when they have reason to believe a patient should be involuntarily committed, based on crimes that patient commits later, what does that do to the patient-doctor relationship?
First and foremost it means that people who might be struggling with any sort of mental illness, no matter how mild or severe, are not going to seek medical attention. Red flag laws are already resulting in people shying away from mental health counseling, stuff like this will just make it worse.
Does it help or harm the general public health to have people avoiding mental health care for fear that being depressed or anxious and also owning guns might lead to involuntary commitment or getting “red flagged”? Granted, I have zero respect for the “mental health professionals” in this country, in fact I am quite convinced most of them are at least as mentally ill as the average patient. Also pertinent, many of the medications they prescribe to patients seem to make those patients worse. As I have pointed out before, some of the most common “antidepressant” medications are commonly linked to mass shooters. Still, if you are someone who thinks that psychiatrists and psychologists are helping people, do you want to make it less likely that someone needing help will see them?
Second, it will make these mental health physicians more likely to recommend someone be committed, even if they might not normally, if they are afraid they will get sued if that patient later commits a crime. Mental health is far from an exact science but if my choice is tossing someone in the loony bin or potentially facing a massive lawsuit later on, you can bet the average psychiatrist is going to lean toward involuntary commitment.
There are plenty of people who should be involuntarily committed, starting with men wearing women’s clothing or anyone who tries to engage in “gender reassignment” for a child but it is a slippery slope.
It is also worth noting that the entire medical profession is trending more liberal. My father is a retired physician in his 80s, so I knew a fair number of doctors when I was growing up and they tended to be pretty conservative in general. Medical students today tend to be a) more female, b) more likely to be from a foreign country without a culture of gun ownership and c) have spent their undergrad and med school years being indoctrinated with cultural Marxist thought. Medical schools are selecting new students using a lot of PC nonsense instead of just academic ability. Having lots of non-white/Asian students is great, and sexual deviants are even better. Regular high achieving, hard working, exceptionally intelligent middle class white kids? No one wants those.
I doubt this lawsuit will succeed but it shows where we are headed. When Trump leaves office, expect a flood of far left judges to fill vacant Federal court seats. Also expect to see additional seats added to the Supreme Court, with the new “vacancies” filled by far left activist judges. Gun rights are going to be the primary target of the new court system, precedent be damned. By the end of 2020s, the Second Amendment will be effectively nullified. We won’t be able to buy ammo online, or pay for firearms with credit cards or most payment processors. Guns won’t be shipped via the normal carriers like UPS and FedEx for fear of lawsuits. The firearms industry in the U.S. will be bankrupted and shut down by lawsuits.
This is coming and there is no way to stop it. Delay it, yes, but stop it, no. Trump has stirred things up and delayed the inevitable but the inevitable is still coming. You need to manage your expectations and prepare for this future right now, not when it is too late, and your planning for a time when you can’t replenish your firearms and ammo supply needs at least as much attention as your 401k.
I have no doubt that at some point they'll attempt to get rid of any due process required to "red flag" someone. This is a first step. If shrinks are afraid of losing their home in the 'burbs, they'll sign off on anything. Soon enough a judge won't even be required.
Quaint notions like "due process" are going to be relics of the past in the very near future. And you are right about shrinks and plenty of other people who will do whatever they have to in order to cling to that nice suburban home and the empty promise of a cushy retirement.