cops are obviously immune to mental issues while on duty

S

SmarterthanYou

rebel
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/12/state_trooper_cant_have_gun_wh.html

Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael L. Keyes is in an odd situation.

When on duty, he can carry a gun.

Yet while off duty, he is barred by law from possessing any firearms, because seven years ago he suffered from deep depression, repeatedly tried to kill himself by taking drugs and was involuntarily committed for mental health treatment.

Keyes' latest attempt to be allowed to have a gun all the time was rejected this week by the state Superior Court.

That court upheld an earlier ruling by Perry County Senior Judge Keith B. Quigley that Keyes' involuntary mental health commitment constitutes an unsurmountable legal barrier to his ability to possess a gun while off duty.
 
I'm surprised they allow him to keep his job. In CO he would be out of a job if he could not own or carry at all times.
 
The issue is the removal of an Americans' Second Amendment rights by a court, and I assume by state statute.

Or is the fact that he is in law enforcement more relevant?
 
Big Money said:
The issue is the removal of an Americans' Second Amendment rights by a court, and I assume by state statute.

Or is the fact that he is in law enforcement more relevant?
Click to expand...
the issue is that, by law, he's being prohibited from exercising his 2nd Amendment rights, but he IS allowed to carry a deadly weapon (despite his mental issues) when he's enforcing the state agenda.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
the issue is that, by law, he's being prohibited from exercising his 2nd Amendment rights, but he IS allowed to carry a deadly weapon (despite his mental issues) when he's enforcing the state agenda.
Click to expand...

Are his mental issues current and ongoing?

And what law trumps the Constitution?
 
Damocles said:
I'm surprised they allow him to keep his job. In CO he would be out of a job if he could not own or carry at all times.
Click to expand...

From the linked story in the OP:


Keyes has been involved in legal battles ever since completing his mental health treatment. He also had to fight to be reinstated to the state police.

He was serving as a state trooper in Newport, when he was placed on temporary leave and ordered into mental health treatment in 2006. He finished treatment in less than a year and had to battle to get his job back, even after his doctor cleared him to go back to work.

An arbitrator's decision ordering his return to limited duty was fought by the state police, but ultimately was upheld by Commonwealth Court. The state Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of that ruling, and he was placed back on duty in 2010. In 2012, Commonwealth Court also ordered that Keyes be awarded nearly $16,000 in back pay.


http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/12/state_trooper_cant_have_gun_wh.html



I'm wondering how much poutrage this case would generate if a plumber was denied the right to arms based on a 7 year-old mental issue.
 
The problem, according to court filings, is that the federal Gun Control Act bars those who have been subject to involuntary mental health commitments from possessing guns.


In its ruling, the Superior Court found there is no way for Keyes to have the record of his involuntary mental health commitment expunged.


That means Keyes cannot surmount the federal ban on his having a gun off-duty, President Judge Emeritus Kate Ford Elliott wrote in the state court's opinion.


That prohibition does not amount to a breach of Keyes' rights under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Ford Elliott found, because it applies only to an "extremely small" class of citizens and has a solid public safety basis.


"The dangers inherent in the possession of firearms by the mentally ill are manifest," the judge wrote. And while Keyes argued that he is no longer mentally ill, "a present clean bill of health is no guarantee that a relapse is not possible," Ford Eliiott noted.


"Given the extreme potential harm attendant to the possession of deadly weapons by the mentally ill, and the risk of relapse," the judge wrote, "we see an important government interest in controlling the availability of firearms for those who have ever been adjudged mentally defective or have ever been committed to a mental institution but are now deemed to be cured."


http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/12/state_trooper_cant_have_gun_wh.html
 
SmarterthanYou said:
the issue is that, by law, he's being prohibited from exercising his 2nd Amendment rights, but he IS allowed to carry a deadly weapon (despite his mental issues) when he's enforcing the state agenda.
Click to expand...

What mental issues?

He has a clean bill of health from a doctor.

That didn't stop the court, though.


It is "rational" for Keyes to still be allowed to have a gun on-duty because then he is under the supervision and observation of superior officers and his fellow troopers, Ford Elliott concluded.

"Were [Keyes] to again fall into a depressive state with suicidal ideation, it would be much more likely to be discovered while he is on-duty and his superiors could then restrict his access to state police firearms," she wrote.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/12/state_trooper_cant_have_gun_wh.html
 
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