nurofen wrote:I hope you can focus on the target and not shoot s**t randomly.
animalpest wrote:I dont think having a handle of "AussieMadman" is doing yourself any favours.
animalpest wrote:I dont think having a handle of "AussieMadman" is doing yourself any favours.
yoshie wrote:If you currently on a prescription it's going to difficult to say on your application that you don't suffer from psychological condition. You'll probably have to go through the process of being denied and appealing the decision with a letter from your prescribing doctor. It would be best to have a chat with your doctor first. In Qld the guidelines were tightened last year.
AussieMadman wrote:just wondering whether anyone knows more about this.
i can't seem to find anything on the internet regarding getting a licence with ADHD. (the ADHD isn't bad at all, just wondering whether a diagnosis is going to classify me as an unfit person to own and use a firearm).
also, perfectly clean record otherwise. will i have any issues when i apply?
JohnV wrote:Once you admit to any medical condition you give them the legal right to investigate it further or use it against you . Your entitled to medical privacy unless you voluntarily give it up . I would not discuss it with any Doctor or medical person as they have reporting rights under the firearms act and might just sink you . You only do that later for an appeal if they knock you back .
NTSOG wrote:G'day All,
I have read this discussion with personal and professional interest. Professionally I worked for 40 years of my 50-year career as a teacher with children and adults presenting with just about every type of developmental disorder possible, especially intellectual disability and autism. I was a specialist in working with people who were especially violent and often dangerous. Personally I am autistic - extremely so as diagnosed. I was formally diagnosed in my mid-forties. [I'm over 70 now.] My brother is also clearly autistic, though he has not sought an assessment - he doesn't need one. He knows who and what he is. He is also a licensed shooter.
Neither of us has informed the Police that we are autistic. It's none of their business. What should be important to the Police is our behavioural record in society. That is, do we have a criminal record? We are both fully functional adult members of society who have been gainfully employed all our lives, though we are 'different' in certain ways. Being different is not a crime. The same should apply to those with ADHD: if such people can and do function safely and effectively in society then their diagnostic state is not the business of the Police.
Note the names:
* Autism Spectrum Disorder
* Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
The term 'disorder' means that the diagnosed person's developmental progression from birth followed a different sequence from the norm, thus is 'disordered' or out of the normal order. A dis-order or difference in development is not a mental illness, though autistics and those with ADHD can develop mental health issues just like everyone who is reading this post. Historically there has been much confusion about the difference between mental illness and developmental disorders often because institutions for the mentally ill and those who were mentally retarded/developmentally different were often on the same site, e.g., Kew Cottages for those with developmental disorders and Willsmere Psychiatric Hospital were side-by-side in Melbourne. In the case of autism many autistics were diagnosed as schizophrenic up to the 1980s and ADD which became ADHD was largely unknown and undiagnosed in the 1970s when I studied for my M.Sc. in disability.
The best example of a person who should never have had access to firearms was Martin Bryant. He has an intellectual disability [mild] with measured IQ of 66. He had some communication impairments when very young. His intellect is at the borderline level in the population, but that is not the primary issue. The intellectual impairment or developmental disorder by itself did not predispose him to harm others. However, as he grew and developed, he displayed many of the symptoms of a Conduct Disorder, e.g. risk taking, playing with fire, hurting other people, lack of empathy, cruelty to people and animals, etc. which are considered precursors to serious psychopathology in adulthood. [I worked with a very large and scary 13 YO lad in 1997 who was probably worse than Bryant as assessed, but he never had access to firearms and was never going to - thankfully.] Nowadays Bryant would have been picked up and services sought for him in relation to his significant mental health problems and presentation. In Tasmania back in the 1970s and early 1980s, as for most of the country, few people knew about Conduct Disorders, let alone what to do with them.
Jim
NTSOG wrote:Fionn: " they generally go by the definition of mental illness covered by the relevant mental health act"
The various definitions of mental illness still do not and cannot include people who are simple autistic or present with ADHD to name a couple of disorders. As I remarked up to about 1980 many an autistic was diagnosed as schizophrenic. Anyone who tried to label any autistic in such a manner nowadays would be in strife.* Without a formal diagnosis of some other co-morbid [psychiatric] condition which is specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V [DSM V] the police would be in strife. They are not diagnosticians and would have to accept the formal assessments of independent psychologists, psychiatrists and other medical specialists just as I, when working in Victorian Disability Services, often had an opinion about the mental state of an individual client, but legally had to seek an independent assessment from a qualified specialist. Hence, I came to know many paediatricians, psychologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, therapists, etc., but would not dare to 'tread' on their turf by venturing a Diagnosis. I was no more qualified to diagnose mental health conditions than the local plumber. Had I done so my manager would have received a formal complaint about my actions.
Jim
*I have been described over the years as 'suffering' from autism like I might suffer from a medical condition or illness like a cold or broken leg. I don't suffer because I am who and what I was born.
NTSOG wrote:Why should we declare ourselves to the Police when we are functioning like any other member of society and have been for decades? We are different, not mentally ill. If I was receiving any 'treatment' then I would declare it, but I'm not 'sick in the head'.
NTSOG wrote:My point is that being different [autistic or ADHD, etc.] is not in itself a medical issue/condition warranting special discrimination by bureaucrats.
Jim