I own one gun, which I have owned for 20 years; way before I was diagnosed. It’s simply for security. Somehow I mentioned it to my psychiatrist and she seemed concerned. I’m not sure why. I have never been suicidal or homicidal, nor have I ever been hospitalized or incarcerated.
With all the mass shooting lately, many from those with mental illness, there seems to be a push for stronger mental health background checks. I’m wondering how people feel about this issue in relation to Schizophrenia.
Should someone with SZ be allowed to own a firearm?
Yes
No
Only with clearance from a mental health professional.
We had a firearm when we lived on a farm and the police response time was over 45 minutes. It stayed locked in a gun safe that my non-SZ wife had access to and I didn’t. She gave me the gun to use as I’m the better marksman. I do own quite a few bows ranging from simple longbow up to high-power compound. I’ve never had the urge to fire them at anything other than a target, although I’m proficient enough to be dangerous at a fair distance. I coach archery and my hobby is Olympic style target shooting.
I think there are valid reasons to own weapons for protection and I think that they can be owned by SZs if they are stable. Non-med compliant SZs have no business owning one, that’s for damn sure.
I used to shoot BB guns as a kid, it helped with steady calming and aiming without your hands shaking.
But real gun, well I’m afraid in my darker moments I would just quickly blow my head off without thinking.
I have protection mechanism to not hurt other people when I don’t know what I’m doing. But at those bad times I consider myself completely expendable. So no I make a public statement to ME not to get one silly.
But I do have all these fears about immigrant invasions based partly on reality. But I’ll have to let other private citizens take care of the terrorists because that job would surely unbalance me even if I was able to prevent a massacre.
Glad I didn’t have access to them when I was at my worst with anger and paranoia issues…
Very glad I didn’t have access to them when I was deeply suicidal.
I think a mental health professional should give clearance for such a decision. When I thought the voices were real I probably would have loved to get rid of them if I knew who they all were. I later reasoned that their friends would enter my head if I did as they seemed to be about everybody in the World. As I became more rational I also began to see that killing others like that would be the effectual end of my life as I would jailed forever or executed if caught or likely shot by a cop. My depression has also made me suicidal at times. So I don’t own a gun. But I support the rights of those who are rational who want to protect themselves from others who threaten them.
I used to worry that my younger brother had a gun… he’s not Sz… no diagnosis…
At work he’s a “can do” go getter I’m guessing… he has the high paying job and the flash car…
At home… he used to be a heavy drinking wife beater… until my Sister-in-law left him.
No mental illness… but so much of a control freak bully… I could still picture him shooting my sister-in-law and both kids. Glad they are out of that situation.
Guys with domestic violence in their history… those are the ones I worry about having guns…
I personally don’t own a gun, but the vast majority of people I know own at least one.
People with criminal or violent histories shouldn’t own guns. Sz or bps with a history of violence or a lot of relapses shouldn’t own guns either.
I have family member’s that live deep in the Appalachian mountains that have to deal with wild animals all the time. They had a bear kill their pet pitbull. Police and animal control are a very long distance from their house, so they have to take security in their own hands. Sz or not, if I lived out in the middle of nowhere and had to worry about bears or other wild animals, I’d own a firearm for protection.
Fiancé and I have had several long talks about this. In the end, we decided I shouldn’t be allowed to have access to a gun, but he can keep his locked away in the house for when he needs it. I used to be really against any sz having access to guns, but then I found out there are people who don’t think we should be allowed to drive either. Driving is necessary for my life, and I am responsible enough to do it safely.
I now realize that is the exact same way the higher functioning and non-suicidal people feel about guns. So yeah, they should be allowed to have one unless their doctor specifically says otherwise.
Good point. Driving is actually much more dangerous than owning a firearm. I imagine the results for the poll would be significantly different if it asked if sz’s should own an automobile instead, despite car accidents causing WAY more injuries and deaths than firearms.
no…because as a sz person my psychosis can rear up and i could get lost…
and then you wake up with decapitated heads of your enemies around you…blood…peoples internal organs squelching underneath your feet…you get the picture !?!
and then i sit on my throne of skulls and laugh like a madman !?!
take care
well i have always said that no-one should be allowed to own a fire arm but i suspect people will be against that,
i think guns are evil, any weapon is evil but if i was too choose which weapon was the worst for a general population to own then i would say it was the gun,
na, leave the guns to the military thats what i say
Well, obviously it’s risky for some schizophrenics to own guns. The risk is that if a person who has schizophrenia is unstable, off his/her meds, or symptomatic or depressed or delusional or other obvious factors that we all know, that they will use it against themselves or harm some innocent person. No one is immune from a bad day or a bad week or a bad year and having that gun is a temptation in those bad times. I think there are certain people with schizophrenia who have been stable for a long length of time who might be trusted with a gun. I don’t know the breakdown by percentage or exact numbers of how many schizophrenics can handle a gun. I personally have a history of being relatively stable but I would not trust myself with a gun. I think the chances are almost nill that I would use it to kill an innocent person. But as far as using it on myself I wouldn’t trust myself. I have horrible days some times and I don’t need easy access to a gun.
and laugh like a madman !?! 
