Elderly Suicide Prevention Gun Scheme another ‘Progressive’ Threat to Due Process

By David Codrea

Edouard_Manet_-_Le_Suicidé
Leave it to “progressives” to exploit the choices of the dead in their obsession to control the choices of the living. [Edouard Manet – Le Suicidé (PD-US)]
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Armed and Aging: Should Seniors Face Tighter Gun Controls?” a rhetorical question headlining an article at the Silver Century Foundation asks. We know how those who are intent on disarming all — one divide-and-conquer category at a time — would answer.

Is it any surprise that Shannon Frattaroli, PhD, associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, comes up with a resounding “Yes”? Does anyone think Michael Bloomberg would invest over a billion dollars and accept anything less?

“There’s definitely more to be done on that issue in the United States,” Frattaroli asserts, citing elderly suicide statistics as justification for a gun-grab. And this is hardly the only citizen disarmament lobby attempt to cut that segment of gun owners away from what they view as the rest of the herd – under force of law.

Another way is to use Social Security “impairments” to disqualify citizens from gun ownership via the National Instant Check System. But not to worry, the administration assures us in its rule, “we also propose to establish a program that permits individuals to request relief from the Federal firearms prohibitions based on our adjudication.”

Who thinks their “adjudication” offers the same protections for fundamental individual rights as a jury trial (as opposed to being judgments handed down by those with their own subjective political sympathies and biases)? Why not flesh out what requesting — and importantly, receiving — relief looks like?  How will equitable treatment be assured for all, and what’s the likelihood that those hostile to guns will reverse their earlier recommendations?

We’ve seen the same impulses employed against veterans. Per Gun Owners of America:

[A]t least 260,000 veterans had their gun rights revoked by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs since December 2015 … they’ve been reporting veterans who have a fiduciary trustee to act on their behalf for legal or financial matters. All veterans with this arrangement are being automatically declared “mentally defective” according to Guns.com, and are having their second amendment rights revoked.

Speaking of people with issues, joining in the gun grab chorus is Tom Arnold, a professional pretender of being someone he’s not, which at least puts him on par with Bloomberg beneficiaries pretending to be impartial social scientists. Arnold’s singular talent has perhaps been best described by “shock jock” Howard Stern. Tellingly, his drug addiction would have made him a “prohibited person.”

“Every day, 20 veterans commit suicide,” Arnold writes in a Hollywood Reporter plea for more citizen disarmament, following the self-inflicted death of his substance-abusing neo-Nazi nephew. “It’s not just veterans; 44,000 Americans committed suicide in 2015.”

As long as that’s the litmus test being used to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms, it would at least be consistent to acknowledge data from recent years such as:

National law enforcement suicide rates run between 18 and 22 per 100,000; the general population’s rate is about 11 per 100,000.

And it would be remiss to not at least mention “gun-free” Japan, including suicides among schoolchildren.

It’d also be remiss – just like the anti-gunners intentionally are – if we neglected to recognize that guns are also used by seniors (as they are by all of us) to save lives.

Back to Frattaroli’s premise, that age-based discrimination is an acceptable solution, one point needs to be emphasized. It’s a truism all but ignored by a “justice” system that can leave the most dangerous free to walk among us:

Anyone who can’t be trusted with a gun can’t be trusted without a custodian.

After all, the greatest mass murder in this country’s history was committed with tactics and weapons unknown (which included an eyewitness report of boxcutters), the second most lethal ostensibly with fuel oil and fertilizer, and the third highest death toll was enabled with a match and a plastic container of gasoline.

How does it make sense to allow free access to these materials to anyone who has been deemed too dangerous to own a gun? And that includes possession by released criminal convicts that have “served their time” yet still remain on the “No Buy” list. If they’re truly still dangerous, Robert J. Kukla made a brilliant observation in his classic “Gun Control,” equating their release with opening the cage of a man-eating tiger.

We’re not supposed to be limiting anyone’s freedom without full due process considerations. If a person is then ‘adjudicated” a danger to himself and others, that needs to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and the appropriate degree of humane custodial protections and treatments must be provided. Importantly, that can’t expire until the danger is no more.  Anything less is just denial.

No argument, the growing population of elderly presents many dilemmas. People are living longer and modern medicine can prolong life beyond what some are prepared to endure. It’s tragic, and results in difficult moral and ethical considerations for individuals and for society as a whole. The question “Whose life is it?” is answered and decided by each of us based on our secular and religious convictions.

Acknowledging there are no easy answers, it’s nonetheless curious that “progressives” in general are supportive of a right to choose assisted suicide. So in this case, it’s not so much the act they object to as the tool. And that makes it fair to question if their goal is truly to reduce “success” rates of those wishing to die, or if it’s simply another partial step to disarm those determined to live.

David Codrea in his natural habitat.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.

In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

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Chris Mallory

I sincerely hope that Shannon Frattaroli spends her last minutes on earth bedridden, in pain and laying in a pile of her own waste while a 3rd world immigrant rifles through her remaining belongings.

Wild Bill

@church M, Roger that, And conscious and tasting her own blood, too. Typical “I’ll decide what is best for you.” liberal.

trumped

I thought leftists were all about being pro choice? And being pro assisted suicide back when that was an issue?

Darren

Conservatives better wake up & get with libertarians advocating disarming the govt so they don’t have the power to take our guns & other rights. Think about it, what are you going to do when the likes of Irontiger wield an overwhelmingly powerful govt against you? I hope “thank you for your service, officer” won’t be what you’ll say.

Yancey

.

Irontiger65

I am the gay blade. Proud and gay,gay and proud.

YANCEY

tigress,I bet you are you sick som bit*tch ! LMFAO !

4way

tigress..

go to one of them liberal backed websites and enjoy your own self Dumbass.

Robert Thomas

No one cares. Do yourself a favor, learn to shoot and carry concealed. There’s people out there that would kill you for your lifestyle.

trumped

And the supposedly pro gay politicians are the ones making sure millions new third world muslim immigrants who want gays put to death are imported here.

Gene Ralno

Disarming the elderly would be a difficult task because most have gotten over their fear of death. They aren’t about to “go out” as slaves for the likes of Bloomberg, Obama, et al., and might even welcome the excitement that marks their end. But the b*st*rds don’t really want the guns. They want control and guns don’t fend off the kinds of control leftists seek. Leftists just want the money and power. They get that from taxes and the colossal bureaucracies that collect or spend. Because Obama wrecked the proverbial car (recall the putz said he wouldn’t give up the… Read more »

oldshooter

Your points are interesting and realistic. I recently had a “coffee house discussion” with a liberal friend who supports confiscation of guns from pretty much everyone except police and military (neither of which groups she trusts at all – so go figure). Anyway I pointed out that any sort of gun confiscation imposed on more than a small local scale could well instigate an insurrection, in effect, a revolutionary war. I asked her who would actually DO the confiscating, and she said police and/or military, so whoever wanted to “go down fighting” could just shoot it out with them when… Read more »

Elmo

Your ‘liberal friend’ wouldn’t say it, so I will- Thank you for your service (to your liberal friend)!

Irontiger65

Total BS,I’m very gay and proud. Suicide might well be a viable option for me.

Mick

Paperpussy65, the only sensible thing you have ever posted!

Irontiger65

Total BS, a huge pile of dung you’re building there.@CW3 RDL is a complete liar-not a surprise that Conservatives would only hear what they want to hear. I googled this fools outrageous claim and legit sources, not the rumor mills the tin foil hat clowns flock to contain information completely to the contrary of this slander.

CW3RDL

Dr. Emanuel, Rahm’s brother and an architect of Obama Care, has said, people over 75 don’t have a meaningful life and can be ethically removed from government funded health care so the money can be spent on younger people who have more to offer. These guys don’t care about our health or our rights. But they can’t control any of us, young or old, as long as we have those “problematic” firearms.

Wild Bill

@CW3 RDL, Thank you for your service, Chief. How close to 75 is Rahm and his brother? I bet that there will be some kind of exception for them when they are over 75.

Irontiger65

Wild Bill Idiot-it figures you’re believe that kind of lie. Death Panels-what a flock of dimwits to buy into that nonsense.

But hey, I wouldn’t think of stopping you from committing suicide, one less waste of resources for the planet to deal with.

Yancey

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Wild Bill

@It, It writes nothing but insults. What an interesting and novel way of proving up your argument!

TEX

@Bill,’it’ has no argument to prove. No point in wasting time arguing with this scum.

Wild Bill

@TEX, Yes sir, I should know better, but sometimes I can not garner a sufficient resistance. I do note, however, from It’s writing (infra) that he is a proud (proud of what?) homosexual and believes that suicide is a viable (sic) option for him, thus there is hope for the future. (note: odd that It would use viable from the latin to live to describe suicide)

TEX

@Bill,’it’ is a sick puppy for sure. It can be very hard to refrain ESP. with the insults. Take care,TEX

James Russell Bailey

Great Britain’s NHS (National Health Service) DOES have ‘death panels’; they determine who does, and who does not receive surgeries, cancer fighting medicines, and another other expensive ‘critical care’. My dear Dimwit IT, this means the ‘Medical Board’ of NHS (and within the Obamacare legislation) literally determines who shall live, and who shall die; all based on Cost Analysis, one major criteria involved in the decision, is the AGE of the patient in question. Further, Canadians are dying every day, because they can’t get the heart/organ surgeries they desperately need; the Waiting Lists (which Great Britain also has) are so… Read more »

Eric_CA

A typical liberal resorting to nonsensical kindergarten naming calling.

jim

And this premise of denying gun rights to seniors, for fear of their eventual suicide, squares with “Death Panels” (Soetoro’s Affordable Health Care Act)…how?

MamaLiberty

Jim, it isn’t about life or death or suicide… it’s about control. Those who want to control the lives and property of others don’t really care in the least how that is achieved. And if they can use the suicide issue to further their agenda of total confiscation of our guns, why wouldn’t they use it gladly? The disarmed can’t do much to protect themselves from all the other evil they have planned. Hillary is actually a Stalin clone, just with a much larger smile. Unfortunately, so are most other politicians. IF we live, we pay taxes and feed their… Read more »

Susan

I agree it’s about controlling the way in which we live and die. We can only go to approved facilities for euthanasia. It’s about profiting from eugenics. If people just kill themselves at home, where’s the profit? It’s our duty to make sure money keeps circulating to keep our economy afloat, even at the end of life. Look up “Stealth Euthanasia: Health Care Tyranny in America”

2nd Amender

Death with Dignity……

I would demand nothing less.
Perhaps those “not quite, but just about, dead”, who have a final wish can be allowed what Dr. Kavorkian would provide, but not until we can get into law. More to protect their families than anything, or anyone, else.
It’s amazing that the progressive/socialist/communists will attempt to control the final breaths of the people, simply amazing!

Irontiger65

It’s amazing that capitalists, conservatives and libertarian freaks think it’s their right to control people throughout their lives with their moralizing, narrow mindedness and opposition to any laws that grant freedoms to people who don’t look and think they way they do!

James Russell Bailey

Tell ya what Comrade, why don’t you take a trip to Lubyanka for a few weeks, and listen to the stories the wall there, down below ground level, have to tell?

Mindless people like you are clueless, without a single grasp of real world aspects pertaining to any given subject matter: Iron Felix would have shown you just how wrong you are in your views.

2nd Amender

And you did just that!

Up yours, scrappy!

jerrythegeek

I’ve watched both of my parents died horrible, painfully extended deaths. My father from bone cancer and dementia; my mother from a combination of a perforated bowel (as the consequence of a hospital worker trying to ‘help’) and other, untreatable causes. Neither of them recognized me in their last days. They had no connection with reality; only with the pain which strong drugs could barely alleviate … and then, not even morphine helped. Neither of them were in a mental state which allowed them to make decisions which would have allowed them to ask for assistance from the Oregon suicide… Read more »

Wild Bill

@jerrythegeek, First let me say that I am sorry to hear about your parents. Now then, opposition to suicide because it is so deleterious to the survivors versus unrelenting agony. How do you weigh the balance now, jerry?

TEX

@Jerry,I am also sorry to hear about the painful deaths that your mom and dad suffered. God bless !