Editor,
I was discouraged to discovered that U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, has adopted an anti-personal freedom view when it comes to the rights of those afflicted with common mental health issues.
In an email from her, it is implied that she supports measures that would abrogate an individual’s right to self defense on the basis of common mental health issue such as depression, grief, postpartum depression, PTSD, insomnia, and memory loss.
Under the law these illnesses currently do not exclude a person from enacting their constitutional rights. In fact the law is very specific in that it states that a person must be adjudicated mentally incompetent by the courts in order to be barred by law from owning a device of self defense.
While we can all support better enforcement of the law and demand that those who are legally barred from owning a firearm are kept from them, we should oppose any effort to arbitrarily deny any person their rights who do not meet the criteria under the law.
However Rep. Beutler appears to be on board with such liberals as Hillary Clinton and President Obama in thinking that all because a person is afflicted by something as common as grief, they, and those who live with them, should be denied their rights without due process and means of appeal.
By this misguided criteria, any person who has ever had depression, sought help for grief, had PTSD, postpartum depression, or needed help with insomnia or memory loss would be, by the virtue of simply seeking help, barred from owning any means of self defense.
The Social Security Administration has already taken the first step in denying beneficiaries their rights via a rule change that makes all beneficiaries ineligible due to any mental health issue. The VA routinely reports to the FBI costing thousands of our veterans their rights to self defense. And now the threat of Executive Action is being levied that would mandate doctors violate HIPPA and report any patient who seek medical help for common mental health issues such as depression to the FBI. And sadly it seems that Rep. Beutler supports these measures.
While I support her efforts to improve mental health care and help families with mentally ill members, I believe the rights of those who are not adjudicated as mentally deficient should be protected. No one should lose their rights because they suffer from common mental health issues such as depression, grief or insomnia.
Raymond Williams
Battle Ground
