are seriously depressed, you can purchase
anti-depressive drugs like Prozac, but only if you
have a prescription from a doctor. Anti-depressants
are enormously beneficial to millions of people but
they are also potentially dangerous if used
improperly. So you have to see a doctor and get an
assessment before can go to a drug store and purchase
one.
But in the United States, in places like Virginia, a
seriously depressed or deranged person can walk into a
gun store and buy a semi-automatic handgun and a box
of ammunition. The only limitation in Virginia is you
cannot buy more than one handgun a month and you must
present two forms of identification. You don't need
permission from a doctor or counselor or anyone in the
business of screening people to make sure they're fit
to have a gun.
We can debate the relative benefits and dangers of
anti-depressants and semi-automatic handguns, but if
30,000 Americans were killed each year by
anti-depressants, as they are by handguns, it seems
likely that anti-depressants would be even more
strictly regulated than they are now.
-- Guest contributor Robert B. Reich was Secretary of
Labor during the Clinton administration.
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