The Sum of All Fears

According to Jillian Bandes, there's a troubling downside to publicly funded healthcare, apart from that whole "death panels" thing: it may make it harder for mentally ill people to get the firearms they'll need in order to take their final, bloody stand against the Culture of Death.

Government health care reform "will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government database...that can preclude you from owning firearms,” said Gun Owners of America, in an email notification to their members, shortly before the health care debate on Saturday.

Worse, the government might decide to treat mental illness as a preexisting condition, and charge more for coverage:

GOA said that diagnoses such as post-traumatic stress disorders or other mental illnesses could be a reason the government uses to charge you more for health insurance under the public plan, or as part of co-op regulations.

That being the case, it's much safer to stick with private insurance companies. Granted, they already treat diagnosed mental illness as a preexisting condition, and price their plans accordingly. But they do it in a patriotic, God-fearing way that preserves our fundamental American right to buy lots of guns while suffering from persecution mania and delusions of reference.

Calls to Sebelius’ office were not returned, though a member of her press office laughed out loud when questioned about the prospect of health care being tied to gun ownership, saying, “that’s crazy.”

But Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, said such regulations were quite possible.

Indeed. And once healthcare is tied to gun ownership, we all know what will (probably) come next: a mathematically perfect One State in which all radical nonconformists -- e.g., ordinary folks who are offended by Obama's outlandish thirst for orange juice -- will be sent to the Gas Bell Jar for asphyxiation.

Harry Reid would probably laugh out loud and say this is crazy, but these guys say it's quite possible. It's one thing to maintain a sunny disposish in regards to global warming, which is either not happening, or beneficial, or both...but when you're talking about gun rights, the slightest possibility of an imaginable scenario that could conceivably lead to the eventual threat of a theoretical outcome that might turn out to be a slippery slope to the hypothetical brink of a potential disaster is grounds for immediate, uncompromising action.

You can't be too careful.

(Photo by cometstarmoon.)