Rick Warren’s Son’s Autopsy Shows Guns And Mental Illness Shouldn’t Mix


Rick Warren’s son’s autopsy shows us that guns should not be anywhere near the mentally unstable.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Rick Warren’s son committed suicide this past Friday.

Matthew Warren, 27, struggled with mental illness for many years, battling depression and suicidal thoughts despite being remember for his playful spirit.

Rick Warren feels overwhelmed by the supportive response to his son’s suicide, telling his Twitter followers, “Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words. You are all encouraging our brokenhearts.”

The coroner for Orange County released Rick Warren’s son’s autopsy report, saying the cause and manner of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police in Orange County are still trying to determine who owned the gun used by Matthew Warren.

Rick Warren previously wrote about his son’s condition, saying, “Only those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided.”

Recent mass shootings like the Newtown school massacre by Adam Lanza and the Aurora movie shooting by James Holmes have recently combined the issues of gun control and the mentally ill. By now we all know that Adam Lanza was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder (SID) as a young boy, and Asperger’s was reported shortly after the shooting (Adam Lanza’s Asperger’s is not linked to violence). We recently found out that James Holmes was taking prescription meds to combat depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and panic attacks.

Making sure that a mentally ill person cannot purchase a gun is largely an agreed upon issue among both gun rights and anti-gun advocates. But at this point we don’t know where the gun that Matthew Warren used came from, or whether the family of Rick Warren owned it at all. It’s possible that the family did not know Matthew had access to the gun.

Assuming the Warren family did own the gun, I would hope they took precautions to keep any guns out of the hands of their son since they knew the battle with suicidal thoughts he was fighting. But in this scenario the precautions failed.

Whatever the case may be with Rick Warren’s family, it’s obvious there is a case to be made that guns need to be under proper lock and key in the presence of the mentally ill. I don’t support the slippery slope of denying gun rights to those with any connection to others suffering from mental illness. Nor do I support the majority of gun control laws being proposed, or actions like the Facebook photo raid which attempted to seize guns due to picture of a son posing with a gun. But a reasonable middle ground might be laws regulating the safe storage of guns.

Should we now be discussing Rick Warren’s son’s autopsy as part of the debate over gun control and the second amendment?

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