So the police in Texas now say...this Odessa shooter was 'mentally unfit'....that the computer system for gun purchases would have pulled this up and denied him the gun. But he went around this by buying via a private situation. Will that private seller get into trouble? It's possible, but legally....he's not forced (at least yet) to validate if the buyer is on a no-sale listing.
But lets talk to the topic of mentally unfit.
In general, you could be mentally unfit based on mental issues (disillusions, paranoid schizophrenia, hallucinations, etc).
You could also be mentally unfit with an low IQ level (typically described at 70 or below). The Army will tell you that they don't sign folks up if the IQ falls below 83.
Around 1984, we had an episode with the US Army in Germany, where this kid was wrapping up his two year contract. He was processing out in the final six weeks, and the finance person came to discover...that since boot camp (20 months prior roughly)....this 'kid' had never been paid since arriving in Germany. Nor had he complained about this.
How? Well....they went to talk to his NCO and found that while the guy was a polite and agreeable character....he was really mentally unfit. His finance records had gotten lost upon arrival in Germany, and his mother (every two weeks apparently) had sent him an envelope with $20. With that, he'd easily survived and the Army chow-hall deal provided all the food he needed. Occasionally, Mama would send a box of t-shirts, socks and underwear.
The Army added it up....it came out to a sum in the range of $30k. They called up his Mama and had a discussion over the matter. The kid was planning to return home (somewhere in eastern Tennessee) and they were going to send the check to her....to ensure things were done right.
How many folks would fall into the mentally unfit category? If you threw in the whack-jobs, the crazies, the schizophrenic crowd....I suspect that we'd have around 10-million across the US, who would be deemed mentally unfit.
In fact, in rural Alabama where I grew up....I'd take a guess that 100 such people lived in ten miles of the family farm. Some graduated high school....mostly just by friendly teachers who gave them a marginal grade for showing up when the guy or gal was simply mentally unfit to be there in the first place.
Licensed to drive? Well....that would bring another topic....how they passed the driver's test/exam.
Should we worry about this? Here's the odd part to this story. You might have 250,000 of these mentally unfit characters who currently own weapons.
Is this something we ought to discuss in Washington? Well....you might even have a Senator or Representative who is mentally unfit....yet serving there.
