From: Jim Gottstein
[jim.gottstein@psychrights.org]
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2013 3:34
PM
To: MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com
Cc: 'Jim Gottstein'
Subject: #RAquestion Have You Joined
the Witch Hunt Against People with Psychiatric Diagnoses?
Dear
Mr. Moore:
On
December 16th you tweeted:
It
is unclear to me whether by saying people must pass a mental exam to own a gun
you are joining the witch hunt to round up all the people who have been given
psychiatric labels and preventing them from owning guns. This
"Psychiatric Profiling" is nothing more than scapegoating because the
contribution of people diagnosed with mental illness to the overall gun death
problem is nil. There was a recent story in the Washington Post showing
that psychiatrists cannot predict who might commit horrific acts such as
Columbine and NewTown, and that people diagnosed with mental illness are not
significantly more likely to commit violence, Predicting violence is a work in
progress, Washington Post, January 3, 2013 (I am quoted at the
very end). In another e-mail to you I asked about investigating the role
of psychiatric drugs in such gun massacres, but these are extreme and rare
events that constitute a miniscule fraction of the gun murders in this
country. Thus, while universal background checks for violent criminal
convictions, etc., might help, it is clear that Psychiatric Profiling
won't.
So,
my question to you is have you joined the witch hunt against people with
psychiatric diagnoses?
For
more background on this, see PsychRights'
Letter to the President's Task Force on Gun Violence. You might also
look at the Mayors
Against Illegal Guns recent report, Mass Shootings since January, 2009,
which includes:
We did not find evidence that any of the
shooters were prohibited from possessing guns by federal law because they had
been adjudicated mentally ill or involuntarily committed for treatment.
James
B. (Jim) Gottstein, Esq.
President/CEO
Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
406 G Street, Suite 206
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
USA
Phone: (907) 274-7686 Fax: (907) 274-9493
jim.gottstein@psychrights.org
http://psychrights.org/
PsychRights®
Law Project for
Psychiatric Rights
The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm
devoted to the defense of people facing the horrors of forced psychiatric
drugging and electroshock. We are further dedicated to exposing the truth
about these drugs and the courts being misled into ordering people to be
drugged and subjected to other brain and body damaging interventions against
their will. Currently, due to massive growth in psychiatric drugging of
children and youth and the current targeting of them for even more psychiatric
drugging, PsychRights has made attacking this problem a priority.
Children are virtually always forced to take these drugs because it is the
adults in their lives who are making the decision. This is an unfolding
national tragedy of immense proportions. Extensive information about all
of this is available on our web site, http://psychrights.org/.
Please donate generously. Our work is fueled with your IRS 501(c) tax
deductible donations. Thank you for your ongoing help and support.