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Title: A marksman in Iraq; No gun permit in Omaha
Source:
Omaha World Herald
URL Source: http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10578732
Published: Mar 5, 2009
Author: KEVIN COLE
Post Date: 2009-03-05 15:56:46 by Rotara
Keywords: None
Views: 174
Comments: 13
Published Thursday March 5, 2009 A marksman in Iraq; No gun permit in Omaha "I was trusted by the {federal} government to carry a loaded weapon, but now I am not allowed to purchase one by my local government," he said.
Sgt. Tim Mechaley trained fellow Marines to fire .50-caliber machine guns. He qualified as a marksman. He fought in the battle for Fallujah, Iraq, and received a combat medal with a "V" for valor.
Yet, when Mechaley sought to buy a 9-mm Ruger pistol for protection at his midtown apartment, the Omaha Police Department rejected his application for a gun permit.
• 23 percent of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and were treated by Veterans Affairs were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
• 21 percent of Nebraska veterans of those wars and who received VA treatment were diagnosed with PTSD.
Source: Dr. Ahsan Naseem, Veterans Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System.
Mechaley, 32, has received counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder related to his service in Iraq. While completing an application for a gun permit, he responded "yes" to a question that asked whether he was being treated for a mental disorder.
"I circled yes because I wanted to be completely honest," he said.
As explanation, he wrote "PTSD from Iraq Marine combat veteran" on the form.
Mechaley's application on Jan. 10 was rejected, he was told, because of that answer.
After talking with police, Mechaley said he had been "too truthful" on the application.
He started to research gun-permit laws and applications and concluded that Omaha's permit application was overly vague on its mental-disorder question.
"If I was actually mentally defective, it would have shown up on the (National Criminal Investigation Service) background check when I purchased my hunting rifle."
What the permit form should ask, he said, is whether the applicant has ever been pronounced mentally impaired or has been committed to a mental institution.
"That's what the (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) form asks, and that's a valid point," he said. "I feel the form at the Omaha Police Department is too broad and misses the point of our laws."
A psychiatry professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center said, however, that having guns on hand could be too big of a risk for some with severe cases of PTSD.
Dr. Carl Greiner said he wasn't familiar with Mechaley's case and couldn't comment on it.
In general, he said, "There would be some specific instances where I would be concerned about someone owning a handgun because of public safety issues."
Using alcohol or drugs to deal with PTSD is a sign of potential trouble, Greiner said.
"That could result in lowered impulse control and the person might be more likely to use a gun," he said.
A gun permit also shouldn't be allowed when someone suffering from PTSD has a history of violence upon awakening, Greiner said.
"If that were the case and someone wanted to keep a handgun under their pillow, it could be a risk to family, friends and others," he said.
Many veterans suffer from PTSD, said Dr. Ahsan Naseem, director of the Lincoln post-traumatic stress disorder clinic of the Veterans Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System.
"It would be uncommon for a combat veteran to not be affected by combat, which is not to say that each combat veteran would suffer from PTSD," he said.
Naseem declined to comment on whether PTSD should be considered in granting gun permits.
Symptoms of PTSD can include powerful, intrusive memories that drill into day-to-day life. Nightmares, flashbacks and problems sleeping are common, too, he said.
Mechaley said his PTSD symptoms have improved with counseling.
While serving in Iraq in 2004 and '05, Mechaley watched eight friends die in combat. When he returned home, he began to suffer from flashbacks and had trouble sleeping. He was diagnosed with PTSD and started going to counseling.
In 2006, he was recalled to active duty to help train Marines to shoot.
He still serves in the Marine Reserves.
"I used to go in (to see the counselor) once a week while I was in the service, but everything is so much better now," he said. "I no longer have flashbacks or trouble sleeping, and I see the counselor only about once every three months."
Mechaley compiled his gun-permit research into an appeal. He took a vacation day recently from his job as a computer technician to present his case to the city's administrative board of appeals. He documented his claims of weapon proficiency, military service and valor.
If he had it to do over again, Mechaley told the appeals board, he would not have circled yes in reply to the question about being treated for a mental disorder.
"Some of our brave police officers also suffer from PTSD as a result of trauma in the line of duty, and they are allowed to carry a weapon," Mechaley wrote in a letter to the board.
Police department representatives who attended the hearing did not oppose Mechaley's appeal.
Appeals board member Garry Gernandt, a City Council member, encouraged Mechaley to take up the issue of how the question on the permit application is worded with Police Chief Eric Buske.
"The citizen needs to work with the city in a case like this," Gernandt said.
Buske later told The World-Herald that in response to Mechaley's case, the police department is looking into changing the question "so it's not quite so broad."
"We are reviewing our policy to ensure it is in compliance with the city ordinance," he said.
The department handled more than 4,500 gun registration applications in 2008. Of those, 39 were rejected. Twenty-three rejections were appealed, and nine of those were reversed.
The appeals board needed fewer than 10 minutes before voting 5-0 to grant Mechaley a gun permit.
Mechaley was relieved with the reversal, he said, but still hopes to convince the police department to change its gun-permit request form.
"There are a lot of combat veterans like me out there who come back and need some help to get over the trauma of war," Mechaley said. "I hope that my going through this will make it easier for the next guy to get a permit."
World-Herald Staff Writer Jason Kuiper contributed to this report.
• Contact the writer: 444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com
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#1. To: Rotara (#0)
Damn, he didn't learn nothing.
Audie Murphy, our most decorated veteran, slept with the lights on and a Walther P.38 under his pillow for years after WWII: Bush/Obama would have denied him his RIGHT to purchase a firearm through an FFL-licensed dealer. To hell with FedGov.
_________________________________________________________________________ Uh huh. And that being perfectly honest got you screwed. Time to learn about mental reservations and knowing when it is not wrong not to be "completely honest." If you assume that anyone who asks you something has the right to know it then of course you should be "completely honest." But when people are asking things about you* that they have no need or no right to know, things that are none of their business, you are within your rights to be less than "completely honest." *Doesn't even have to be about you. Suppose you were hiding someone from "the authorities," someone you knew was innocent of the crime they were claiming the person had committed. And you also knew that the innocent person you were hiding would be taken out and shot if you answered truthfully when "the authorities" asked you if you knew where that person was. Things like that are the reason for using mental reservations. Does the person who is questioning me have any right to ask the question of me? Will my honest answer bring me harm or deny me a benefit or a right, or will it bring harm to others? Sometimes people have no right to know the answers to the questions they ask.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Honesty is for friends, business associates and loved ones. Cops and the government don't deserve honesty from anyone.
Truism of the day winner.
I completely agree. Anyone that says "I have nothing to hide" - has everything to hide. The beast roams the earth, seeking whom it may devour.
Simple solution to this problem: stop sending our soldiers to fight in useless or counterproductive wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.
and promises to be "transparent" and then spends hundreds of thousands of dollars hiding something is not to be trusted on anything.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Anyone that says "I have nothing to hide" and promises to be "transparent" and then spends hundreds of thousands of dollars hiding something is not to be trusted on anything. Amen!
Thanks.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. How about, I have nothing to hide, but you can't see it anyway? ;-)
Or what about, I have nothng to hide and if I did have something to hide I would hide it. But since I have nothing to hide I am not going to hide it or show it to you. >(;^{]
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. LOL
I wanted to be completely honest
#2. To: swarthyguy (#1)
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?”
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#3. To: Rotara (#0)
"I circled yes because I wanted to be completely honest," he said.
Lord Acton
#4. To: Rotara (#0)
"I circled yes because I wanted to be completely honest," he said.
#5. To: bluegrass. all (#4)
Honesty is for friends, business associates and loved ones. Cops and the government don't deserve honesty from anyone.
#6. To: bluegrass (#4)
Honesty is for friends, business associates and loved ones. Cops and the government don't deserve honesty from anyone.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
#7. To: Rotara (#0)
23 percent of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and were treated by Veterans Affairs were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
#8. To: Rotara (#6)
Anyone that says "I have nothing to hide"
Lord Acton
#9. To: James Deffenbach, rotara (#8)
"Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat's dream. If you control carbon, you control life." — Dr. Richard Lindzen, MIT Professor of Meteorology
#10. To: farmfriend (#9)
Lord Acton
#11. To: Rotara, bluegrass (#6)
Anyone that says "I have nothing to hide" - has everything to hide.
#12. To: Refinersfire (#11)
Lord Acton
#13. To: James Deffenbach (#12)
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