Student sent to mental institution for posting photo of himself with shotgun

Wow! If they made him bunk with a visiting student from Sandhurst they could have wiped out the first three amendments. How long has it been since anyone scored THAT kind of trifecta?

I use a photo of myself firing a silenced AR-15... The University of Colorado hasn't had me tossed in jail, yet... Maybe it is a matter of time.

Doesn't anyone see the similarities to the Salem Witch Hunts of the 1600s?

How much do you think a pitbull plaintiff's lawyer could get out of the school/state for this little trick? Or is the school exempt as an instrumentality of the state? But if it's a state institution, maybe there's a federal 1983 civil rights action the guy could bring - I don't think states are immune from those.

Would this render him unable to purchase via a 4473? I forget the exact langauge but I believe being "forcibly committed" renders one inelligible.

Well -- he wasn't examined because of the picture from what I can read here and elsewhere. He was examined because of the picture and *the comment* he left. As noted by someone on the site linked to, if he had gone out and shot someone there would be more hell to pay than we can imagine.

So. How does one keep our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights safe in the light of people like Cho? This is the question.

It seems from the sources I have looked at that the school was right in making inquiries, but could have done it differently.

It appears this person was well socialized (Cho was not, Kazinski was not ... you the drift) to start with. In some ways I think the schools will be passing the buck quickly to psychiatric professionals simply to avoid being held responsible for any mayhem which might occur in their student body. (Of course, as we have also learned in the VT case, the psych professionals screw up too ... I mean -- how could they do a valid evaluation on a guy who barely communicated and not come up with some DSM-IV dx besides depression -- or whatever it was? In this case 24 hours was cleary not enough time. Bizarre.)

Five days seems like a long time to interview / test / evaluate the student. Especially given that he actually seems to have talked and had friends.

Overreation? Yes in some ways. But don't perpetuate the myth that he was committed and evaluated because he had a picture of himself holding a shotgun.

Oh -- Jay -- I think if you have a registered silencer it's no more a problem than someone pictured otherwise. If it not registered I think you may have a legal problem.

Cheers.