The WA Police Minister, Mental Health Checks & Political Thought Bubbles Instead Of A Thoroughly Worked Out Plan

The WA Police Minister Paul Papalia MLA made a bombshell announcement this past Sunday morning (5th of February 2023)
His aim to see all Registered Firearms Owners have recurring (we assume annual we don't know) Mental Health Checks.

It resulted in an Opinion Piece in the Albany Advertiser on the Thursday the 9th of of Februrary.
I'll scan that "O.P." by Jacinta Cantatore (Deputy Editor, South Western Times) & post it below. For now here is the Letter to the Editor I have sent to the Albany Advertiser & asked for it to be printed in the next issue of the Advertiser (16th of February)
Fingers crossed its printed, we'll have to wait. 
Their Deputy Editor, so we'll see what decision they take.
Below is my "Letter" (and yes the actual letter had full name, address & daytime phone number as they require)

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Hi,

Wondering if I can submit the following Letter to the Editor for next Thursday's Albany Advertiser please?
Best regards

Re "Opinion - Jacinta Cantatore" (Advertiser Fed. 9^th 2023) - Opinions are fine but carry more weight & benefit everyone when there's knoweldge and research added in. Regarding Mental Health Check on Shooters there's a few things she missed.

1. Whilst no Australian state has these checks there are countries in Europe that do
   
   
2. Even fervent anti gun campaigners like Professor Phillip Alpers have pointed out they give a false hope & that some Clinical Psychiatrists have stated that they're quite hazardous & inaccurate. That have little to no chance of predicting any future violence or at best, as good as coin toss.
   
   
3. Mr Papalia said 20 people died of gunshot wounds, 10 may have involved (unspecified) mental health issues & those deaths were "murders, domestic violence, attacks on police & suicides" That means by WAPolice statistics they were homicides & suicides. The total number of WA Homicides in 2021-22 was 83. Total number of Suicides for the same period was 389.
   Mr Papalis left out the fuller statistic. 472 people died of Homicide & Suicide, but he wants to test only those with firearms which represented 10 people out of the 472. (Do the maths, out of 389 suicides, 388-382 DID NOT use a firearm. They wouldn't have been tested under this "plan")
   
   
4. Clinical Psychiatrists need quite a few hours to reach a baseline on a patient BEFORE a reasonable & accurate diagnosis is possible. Let's go with an unreasonably low figure & say it takes 6 hours. Multiply that by 89,000+ registered firearms owners. That's 534,000 clinical hours. WA have to employ another 340+ clinincal psychiatrists to not place any extra burdern on the already over worked mental health sector in WA.
   
   
5. Such tests that are unlikely to work or benefit anyone won't apply to any criminal with an illegal firearm
   
   
6. Mr Papalia did not say which mental health conditions are the greatest threat in his thinking.
   
   
7. The minister made the announcement on a Sunday morning. That is very, very odd. Perhaps its a coincidence that it was the day after the 2023 WA Liberal Party State Conference that gave that party (that I'm not a member of) its biggest ever positive media news splash in years. I'm not saying the minister released an unworkable thought bubble of an idea (that cannot possibly work) on a Sunday morning just to steal the bandwidth off his opposing political party, to regain a grip of the news narrative/optic. But I would definitely not be critical anyone else who says they clearly saw it that way. 

Everyone has opinion but unless we look at wider facts & research things a little, then the opinion is unhelpful to past or present victims, their families or any law abiding firearm owner not likely to ever commit any such heinous crimes. Pays to avoid appearing knee jerk, sensationalist, fact free & deep as a spilt drink on the lino.
We need to be honest, fair & accurate, don't we?
Think these points were badly missed & are essential for all to now know.


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