Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bipolar Gun Owners?

A family knows, a family knows when their family member is a danger, problem is they are powerless to do anything without red-flag laws.

I get it, I know there will be abuse of this law, but until somebody can come up with some sort of remedy.

This country has decided to leave it up to the mentally ill to decide whether or not they need help, they have STRIPPED ALL ability for families to force their loved one into treatment, they are held at the mercy of a broken system.

Laws need to be changed, but the politicians are too lazy to change them. How about this for a starter, if a person is 5150'd three times in a year, they can be forced into treatment, and have their firearms taken away until they have gone five years with no mental breakdown?

It's real easy to sit there and sing the constitution, but it is scary as [bleep] when you are living with it.

Let me put it to you guys. You have a daughter who is bipolar, you know she has a gun at home.
She comes and stays with you, because she is feeling manic. In the middle of the night you wake up to a scream. You find your daughter in an EMPTY bathtub, screaming because she says the water is too hot and is scolding her. Then she tries to leave and go home. You call the police. The police can see she is out of her gourd, but their limited training only teaches them to ask the same to BS questions that every bipolar person knows how to answer, "No I don't feel like I want to hurt myself, not I don't feel like I want to hurt anyone else."
She says she is going to leave at 1300 hour, and will go out to the highway and hitch-hike home, the police tell you that YOU CANNOT STOP HER from leaving, it is her right to do so.
So tell me what the constitution is going to do for you, and how it will help you protect your daughter and society? You know she will head home to where she has a firearm, WHAT DO YOU DO?

I think your daughter should be able to defend herself.

If you don’t agree that’s ok. You seem like quite the dumb ass anyway.

Huh?

In Florida it's called the Baker Act.............. IDK if Cali has something similar!

I can only imagine, and that probably poorly, what you are dealing with.

The Constitution protects me from the government, how well it continues to do that is another story, and it enables me to protect myself and others FROM 'others'......... that too, is being eroded!

Got to help them find the right meds and somehow make sure that med is taken.

What do I do...I thank God I am not walking in your shoes.

Best of luck.

Shame on you!

I don't think its that simple. I have two relatives who are bi-polar and neither has exhibited any violent behavior during their crazy spells. I'd be more concerned regarding them having guns around that they would commit suicide.

This is a very difficult thing and I don't think that there is going to be a good answer. Some people are crazy and should not be allowed to own guns. Who gets to define what crazy is and how crazy you can be before your guns are grabbed, is going to be hugely problematic and someone's rights are gonna get wrongly infringed without doubt.

On the other hand, with a lot of these shooters, in the aftermath, people will say "well everyone knew he was crazy and always has been".

I've read that some people who have serious mental health issues stop taking their meds because they don't like how they make them feel. Then when the drugs clear their system is when they have a breakdown.
I don't know how anyone can really make sure someone is taking their meds all the time when they are supposed to.

Coming from you this is powerful stuff.

Yes. This is an important issue we need to deal with.

Read an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette after one of the big
mass shootings. Written by the parent of a late teen suffering with the same
symptoms as the shooter. Titled "I Am. XXXX'S Mother". (Can't remember)

She told stories like Barkoff's.
About locking up the kitchen knives.
Literally worrying about the forks, and fire, and gas, and........
About how the only way to get authorities to do anything was to press
charges against her own son.

For being sick.
Have him jailed.
Where he would be victimized, and/or a victimizer.
Not get the treatment he needed. And then released.

She pretty much knows it's not going to get better. In anyway.
Until her son is locked up, long term. Or dead.

Know a guy who went through this with a wife.
Suddenly, bipolar.
She went nuts.
He loved her. She was crazy, couldnt help herself.
Having young kids, he had to take then and leave her.
For their sake.
Always thought how tough that would be.
Imagine divorcing someone you love, because they are sick.
Then denying access to their kids.


One of our former state mental hospitals isn't far from here.
Now, it's a state prison. Same buildings even.

Ironic.
We used to hospitalize these people.
Now we imprison them.
That property just mirrors our policies.

Everyone has a natural right to self defense. It isn't up to anyone else to suppress their right unless it infringes on the rights of others, at which time you exercise your right to a lethal defense.

If you don't get that, read it again slowly until you do. Freedom ain't free!

Wait until he puts wood into stainless......

A Bipolar diagnosis is not a yes/no thing. It's a matter of degree. A simple diagnosis, by itself, doesn't mean a whole lot.

Here's where we get into a matter of prudence. Yes, both the child and society need to be protected. But it should be done with restraint since the right to keep & bear arms is the right to self defense, which is the right to life.

it means nothing , Winston Churchill , Ted Turner, Jonathan Winters were bipolar

I hate being bipolar. 😡

Its awesome!

Bipolars are not stable or rational. I knew this women who was bipolar and at first she seemed to be a lot of fun. We were at the dog park one warm day and her dog looked like it was going to get into a fight so I poured a bucket of water on it. The fighting stopped and the women said thanks for stopping it.

I went to refill my bucket of water and she attacked me without warning screaming that she was the only one who could discipline her dog. I grabbed her arms and held her away from me, but I was grateful that she didn’t have a knife or gun. Furthermore, I didn’t want to have anything to do with this crazy lady. I could see her killing me without warning for no reason.

A while latter I heard that she gave her dog away to a women and wanted it back after 4 days and the new owner refused. This crazy women put the new owner’s 90 year old father in the hospital. They went to court and she got her dog back and a court order banning her from the dog park.

This is why bipolars shouldn’t be allowed to have guns and you avoid having anything to do with them.

Barkoff, I understand and agree, and certainly empathize with your concerns and the challenges you are dealing with. For me, the term "bi-polar" normally signals manic/depressive symptoms and the related mood swings. However, the behavior you explain above seems much more difficult - seems to signal a secondary and deeper psychosis. Wishing you the best as you persevere.

Would be a decent funny if you knew how to spell either place.

Arctic and Antarctic