This is just a taste of the text..... it can all be found by following the link provided.
Dr. John Lott has a piece at Broad & Liberty, a new opinion outlet in Philadelphia.
For the whole article go here: https://crimeresearch.org/2019/10/n...-the-mentally-ill-and-protect-peoples-rights/
Dr. John Lott has a piece at Broad & Liberty, a new opinion outlet in Philadelphia.
Everyone wants to stop dangerous people from getting guns. The hot new policy option before this committee is Red Flag laws, which take away the guns of people deemed dangerous to themselves or others. But there is a much more effective alternative already in place.
They are known as Baker Act statutes (Pennsylvania’s is called the “Mental Health Procedures Act”), and have been around since the early 1970s. They allow police, doctors and family members to have someone typically held in most states for a 72-hour mental health examination based upon a simple reasonableness test – little more than a guess or a hunch. The hold in Pennsylvania is up to 120 hours.
These laws focus on mental illness, and they require that the individual be evaluated by mental-health-care experts. If a person can’t afford a lawyer, a public defender is provided. While judges can involuntarily commit an individual they believe is a danger to themselves or others, there is a range of options they can take, with the threat that other options can be followed up with involuntary commitment.
For the whole article go here: https://crimeresearch.org/2019/10/n...-the-mentally-ill-and-protect-peoples-rights/