Who is mentally healthy enough to own a gun?

[caption id="attachment_17745" align="alignright" width="368"] Eddie Ray Routh--alleged killer[/caption]

Carol Forsloff — While gun lovers and those who believe in gun control wrangle over the collective versus independent right to bear arms, and the meaning of the Second Amendment, the debate includes the issue of mental health. But how do we define who is mentally fit to own a gun and who does the defining?

Eddie Ray Routh was just arrested and charged with the murder of Chris Kyle, a Navy seal and sniper known for his skill with a gun. 25-year-old Routh is accused of killing both Kyle and Chad Littlefield, age 35, at a gun range in Texas.

The Rand Corporation estimated in 2008 that one in five veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD. In 2010, CNN reported that one-third of veterans returning from these wars suffer from serious depression or PTSD. The research study reported that "For as many as 14 percent of these veterans, depression, and PTSD cause severe problems in their daily life. These problems are often accompanied by alcohol misuse and aggressive behavior."

Texas, a state that takes pride in its history of promoting gun ownership, has been the site of several recent episodes where rage has been the motivator for a killing. In one featured case within the past week, Chief Prosecutor Mark Hasse of Kaufman, Texas, was shot dead in a parking lot across the street from the county courthouse. Authorities are researching who might have been the killer from a series of individuals who have been prosecuted by Hasse or who have issued threats in recent years.

In Midland City, Alabama, authorities are pleading with Jimmy Lee Dykes to release a five year old boy he kidnapped from a school bus after reported to have shot the school bus driver.  65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes is reported to have killed 66-year-old driver Charles Albert Poland. Dykes is said to be a survivalist, with a strong resentment of the government, who has railed against any incursion of anyone on or near his property. A neighbor of Dykes, Michael Creel, was reported to have described Dykes views and behaviors, stating, “He’s the type that thinks the government’s out to get him. He’s not right in the head.”

Medical experts define post traumatic stress disorder as a mental health condition that is caused by a precipitating event such as war, rape, or natural disaster. It involves reliving the event through flashbacks that can initiate nightmares and anxiety, causing an individual to commonly have either a flight or fight response. Arousal issues include:

• Difficulty concentrating


• Startling easily


• Having an exaggerated response to things that startle you


• Feeling more aware (hypervigilance)


• Feeling irritable or having outbursts of anger


• Having trouble falling or staying asleep

Major clinical depression has some of the following features in order for an individual to be classified as having this mental health problem, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM is used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental health illness in the United States.  The symptoms may include:

• Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day


• Loss of interest or pleasure in most activities


• Significant weight loss or gain


• Sleeping too much or not being able to sleep nearly every day


• Slowed thinking or movement that others can see


• Fatigue or low energy nearly every day


• Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt


• Loss of concentration or indecisiveness


• Recurring thoughts of death or suicide

Many of the survivalists belong to separatist groups, labeled by the Department of Justice as the foremost terrorist threat to the United States. Significant threats have been posed by groups and lone gunmen who belong to separatist organizations. The history of the United States is filled with numerous events that threatened the security of whole regions of the country, families, groups, and individuals. In 1998, for example, Donald Beauregard, the head of a militia coalition known as the Southeastern States Alliance (SSA), was charged with "conspiracy, providing materials for a terrorist act, and gun violations in connection with a plot to bomb energy facilities and cause power outages in Florida and Georgia. Beauregard became known in 1995, when he and his militia group, the Florida-based 77th Regiment Militia."

Homeland Security experts provide the following overview about the beliefs of separatist groups like the militias:

Militia groups vary in some of their beliefs and priorities, but the preservation of their right to possess and own firearms is universally regarded as the most important issue. Militias view firearms ownership as a means to safeguard against government totalitarianism. Many militia members view, as fact, conspiracy theories based on scenarios where the federal government increases its power gradually and confiscates firearms. Some members believe New World Order conspiracy theories that foreign troops are secretly stationed in the country or staged for an eminent invasion sanctioned by the United Nations.

If these beliefs and behaviors are rationally based, one would consider militia groups, the depressed and those who have suffered trauma to be mentally healthy. On the other hand, many of the symptoms can lead to aggressive acts and often with weapons. The numbers of people who suffer from mental health problems are considerable, depending on the references and dates of those references. WebMd reported in 2004 that a full 25% of Americans have a diagnosed or undiagnosed mental disorder.