Responsible Autistic gun owners

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Perhaps that is because you are a right-winger and biased towards what Sean is saying that, that you choose to moderate this particular thread.

I am in no way a right-winger but I agree with the moderator.

i don't understand how this thread can be about the right for autistic people to own guns but NOT about gun control. surely, they are part of the same thing?

i was not aware that the person who creates a thread was allowed to dictate to other members what they can and cannot discuss on that thread. i have genuine concerns about sean's motivation for requesting that no one mentions gun control- maybe i'm being cynical but, to me, it looks like he is trying to manipulate the outcome of this thread. i don't think my opinions should be censored just because i disagree with what someone else has written.

Just to let people know, I have stepped down as moderator so I will not be moderating this thread.

Thank You

Sean asked for gun control to be kept out because that sort of thing is best talked about in the Politics forum. And I agree.

In our country it is much more difficult to get a gun as its illegal to have a gun for self defence, unless you are a security guard or a police officer or such - weapons of the like are only allowed for competition or hunting, and for the latter you need a licence, and to renew it annually.

By the way, if you're going to advocate banning guns for Aspies/Auties on the basis that because they have one they are likely to use it to kill people, then ban guns for everyone because everyone's likely to use a gun this way, whether they are on the spectrum or not.

That's too bad. I liked your job performance as a moderator.

RobertN, I think all Louis was saying was that he wanted to keep a debate for the controversial forum. If you'd like to start a debate over there, by all means, go ahead and do it. There isn't anyone stopping you from debating that over there.

Also, if anyone lives in the USA, the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights says that citizens have the right to bear arms. I would be hesitant to let someone who couldn't control themselves own a gun or a rifle, but if they're responsible (autistic or not), they should have this right. Now, if they are either suicidal or homicidal, that is a different story. In that case, the gun could be used to hurt someone else.

I have nothing against responsible autistic gun owners, as long as they are responsible. A gun is a tool. It doesn't shoot people/things on its own. The person who owns (or is using) the gun is should be responsible for handling it properly, including seeing that no harm comes to either themselves or to other people becuase of the gun.

Let me just say, as someone who is very, very left-wing (and anti-gun), I completely agree. If a person causes no harm to other people, then he or she should be allowed the right to have a gun. I support other people's individual rights even if I disagree with the rights themselves. I mostly do this because I want other people to support my individual rights even if they disagree with those rights.



Exactly. Guns don't kill people. People with guns kill people.

i don't know if you are referring to my posts or not but i was certainly not saying that people with ASDs are more likely to use to kill people if they have access to guns. i don't think anyone should be allowed to own a gun (except some police officers when dealing with hostage situations). the point that i was trying to make was that there isn't a person in this world who is capable of assessing their own mental health, whether they are autistic, neuro-typical, psychopathic or schizophrenic. i live with autism every second of my life and i would never endorse discrimination against myself and others with similar conditions.

hecate,

That post pointed to what some people said that the public would think - it was not pointed at you specifically. I never said that people with ASDs would be more likely to kill people if they had access to guns, kindly do not put words in my mouth.

Honestly, I too think guns should never be used for self defence, because of the likelyhood of shooting some innocent person by accident because you're paranoid someone is going to attack you... now if I had a gun, I'd be likely to seek out those who made my life miserable and strike them down one by one. As psychotic as that sounds, I'd really do that.

My point was that if that was the wave, people would be discriminating those with ASDs for something all people are capable of.

I'm sorry if I have inadvertedly offended you, I did not intend to do that. I only sought to make a point that this is something this incident is likely to bring about... which I am adamantly against and will fight with every bit of energy I have if it happens.

EDIT: ok, the first bit was... but not the rest!

aaron,

when i read "if you're going to advocate..." i thought you were referring to a person on this thread. since my contributions were the closest match i assumed you were talking about me. also, i think i confused your posts with something that another member wrote so very sorry about that!

now that i understand that you were talking about other people (eg: authorities, media etc) i completely agree with you!

"Have you seen Rosie O'Donell lately? Man, she's 'bout three M&Ms away from holy s**t! Good night! Man, I ain't kiddin' ya, she is. And the thing is, she pissed me off anyway a while back, remember when she had Tom Selleck on 'er program a while back? She blindsided Tom Selleck, hes a good feller, never hurt nobody, but he's in the NRA, so she hates that. So she was like, ' You're in the NRA; let me tell ya somethin' Tom, GUNS KILL PEOPLE'. Can 'ya believe she said that BS? On the Rosie O'Fatass show. She looks right at him and says that. She says 'guns kill people'. Let me tell 'ya somethin'; husbands that come home early, kill people. Alraait? The gun's just sitt'n there. If guns kill people, I can blame misspelled words on 'ma pencil. 'GIT 'R DONE! That's right! They're like, 'Larry, what's wrong with your pencil? You misspelled some letters.' 'I know, my pen's all screwed up, I don't know whats wrong with it them there.':? "

-Larry the Cable Guy


In case this all was too abstract for anybody, the point of this mildly offensive comedy routine is about accepting personal responsibility and accountability for your use of firearms. I am bipolar, I am obsessive-comulsive, and I am definitely somewhere on the Autistic spectrum, though my psychiatrist has not pinpointed where yet. I know that I have to take some extra cautions with my own gun ownership that most people may never need to take, and I recognize the responsibility, that I know that if my meds ever become screwed up, that my guns will have to live at my brother's place for a while. Likewise, I would hope that everybody would take a thorough look at themselves, regardless of whether or not they have any physical or mental conditions, and take whatever they may find into consideration before buying a gun. If you know you shouldn't own a gun, you could always borrow a friends gun if you go with them to a range.

I want to say that there are something like 380 million legally purchased firearms in the US in 80 million households. Everybody knows that the media hates guns. They try to make it look like the problem is the guns themselves, and lump the gangs and mentally ill together as a secondary scaoegoat. You are never going to disarm the gangs short of throwing them in jail or having them all killed, some of the mentally ill might not buy guns (legitemate or black market) if they were exposed to information of the responsibilities of owning a gun, and then there is the rest of the population, who needs to be exposed to information about whether or not they can handle the responsibility of owning a gun, and also to expose the population to gun safety rules since that information is very weakly disseminated in most States. Personal responsibility would likely reduce accidental discharges, kids getting ahold of their parent's gun, and crimes of passion/chemica intoxicant related gun crimes in poercentages that all the bans, background checks, criminal sentencing, and in some cases, licensing, have failed to do.

I hope this all makes sense.

I don't think anyone should have them, except the police. Even if someone is officially sane, who knows what can enter their mind in a moment of madness if they are upset or angry.

I can give two examples in my own life that gun ownership would not be a good idea. Firstly, my own father (whom I no longer have any contact with). He has never been diagnosed with anything, but he was a chronic wife-beater, and his mood would swing with the wind. If we had had a gun in our house, the conseqences could have been awful. Either my dad, in a rage, could have shot my Mum, or my Mum could have shot my Dad in an effort to defend herself from his violence. Either way, I would have lost a parent.

The second is that at the moment, my Mum and stepdad are fighting a legal battle with a neighbour in our village involving noise nuisance. This neighbour has a very hot temper and is very ignorant of the law. He is very likely to lose the case, and with it £10,000 in court costs. If this rather unsavoury individual had a gun, in a moment of anger at having lost a large sum of money, he could quite easily come round and shoot one of us dead. Again, he is not on any psychaitric register, as far as I know, and if he lived in the US, he would be entitled to own a gun. However, he is as mad as a hatter!!

It's really sad how people twist the facts and state that guns kill people. Guns are inanimate objects, do not have a life of their own, and therefore, they cannot get up and shoot at people. It is the responsibility of the person owning the gun to control it properly. If they don't, this is where trouble happens.

There's such a thing as collective responsibility though. If your population wants guns then fine but dont act dumb and like there was nothing you could have done as a population when they turn their guns on each other. Like The Clash song goes "DENY, Your such a LIAR!"

This thread isn't about whether anyone should or should not have a gun, it's about whether autistic people should be allowed or denied gun ownership based on our diagnosis. I see no reason why our dx should be the primary factor, if we are otherwqise responsible, competent people.

How would I butcher my goats quickly and humanely without a gun?

What am I supposed to do when I see a pack of dogs, including 2 Rottweilers, attacking the neighbor's horse, cornering it in a barbed wire fence and lunging at its throat? (yes, this actually happened, and my partner at the time shot one of the dogs, which dispersed the pack and saved the life of the horse).

I suppose you will say we should call the police, (which assumes that the police will even care) but would they get here in time?

There are a lot of very practical reasons for owning a gun that have nothing to do with wanting to kill another person. I would like to think that if worse came to worse, I would be able to shoot an intruder who was bent on trying to kill or hurt my family. I honestly don't know if I really could. More likely I would wound them and buy enough time to call the police.... (feels like a wimp).

Fact of the matter is, there are a lot of dumb, stupid, morally imcompetent people who do own guns and aren't actually responsible enough to do so...(but hey, I don't think they should even be allowed to operate a motor vehicle- they haven't enough sense to sober up first). I guess if it coems down to whether or not auties are competent enough to own and use a gun, perhaps the criteria should include whether we have a driver's license and have driven responsibly, and this should then apply to any gun owner, not just autistics. Because really, someone who'll drive drunk will probably use a gun while drunk, too.