Mr. Hopler, 49, who lives on a winding road here, is once again fighting for his right to keep and bear arms despite having been totally blind for most of his adult life. He has repeatedly persuaded judges to let him keep his collection of more than a dozen handguns, but doing so has been more complicated since 2008, when he was handling a .357 Magnum he owned and shot himself in the shin.

This reminded me of a story I related awhile ago.

I was monitoring tests given to those applying for positions with the 2000 Census Bureau.

Three or four or five people would show up at any one session. I would answer questions and then hand out the testing materials for those who wished to remain.

One bright sunny winter day I am waiting in my room for applicants and a lady shows up with sunglasses and a seeing-eye dog.

Well, I had the Braille set up and duly set her up with testing materials.

To make the long story short, every thing went swimmingly and the applicants were dismissed after I had collected all the tests.

I am cleaning up and getting ready to leave and I happened to look out the window into the parking lot and happened to see the blind lady enter her car after the dog had been properly seated.

The problem?

The lady had entered the vehicle on the driver's side.

Hahahahahaah

Yeah, she got in, buckled up and drove away.

There are degrees of blindness I suppose!

The issue for me is:

HOW SHOULD SOCIETY TREAT THE HANDICAPPED?

Life is complicated; otherwise anyone could do it!

Now, the problem with generalities is that they gloss over most specifics. Categorization is never easy.

WIKI says:

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.

Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness.[1] Total blindness is the complete lack of form and visual light perception and is clinically recorded as NLP, an abbreviation for "no light perception."[1] Blindness is frequently used to describe severe visual impairment with residual vision. Those described as having only light perception have no more sight than the ability to tell light from dark and the general direction of a light source.

In order to determine which people may need special assistance because of their visual disabilities, various governmental jurisdictions have formulated more complex definitions referred to as legal blindness.[2] In North America and most of Europe, legal blindness is defined as visual acuity (vision) of 20/200 (6/60) or less in the better eye with best correction possible. This means that a legally blind individual would have to stand 20 feet (6.1 m) from an object to see it—with corrective lenses—with the same degree of clarity as a normally sighted person could from 200 feet (61 m). In many areas, people with average acuity who nonetheless have a visual field of less than 20 degrees (the norm being 180 degrees) are also classified as being legally blind. Approximately ten percent of those deemed legally blind, by any measure, have no vision

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindness

Remember when times were tougher and you had to get ahold of Ann or Abby Landers?

I really did not know that only 10% of blind folks were totally blind! I certainly have dealt with blind folks. Hell I have represented them in one context or another.

Sometimes I have to relearn things.

And somebody has to make the decision as to whether or not someone is blind or not under a variety of circumstances.

So state and Federal legislators and regulators have to deal with standards for the determination of disability for certain social programs.

State and Federal legislators and regulators have to enact standards for aiding the disabled such as providing ramps for easy entry into government buildings; providing government forms in Braille; providing handicapped parking spaces....

And state and Federal laws have to deal with standards for the determination of disability that must affect the disabled and their individual rights.

Should blind people be allowed to drive?

Should blind folks be allowed to own and store guns?

Should blind folks be allowed near power tools?

Well my vote would be, as a generalization of course, that blind people should not be able to drive or have guns.

I will get back to you with regard to power tools.

The standard for mental illness that appears to be universal in nature involves this question:

Is the individual in question a danger to himself or to others?

Now the protocol as far as determining the answer to that question depends up the location of the loco in la cabeza.

Is the opinion of a Psychiatrist necessary?

What tests might be administered to the suspect in order to make the proper determination of sanity?

How much probable cause do you need to initiate the proper protocols?

Certainly, following an accident or two, any blind individual should not be allowed to drive.

And blind people who have accidentally or otherwise shot themselves (or a third party who was not in the process of committing a felony) should probably not be allowed to be in possession of firearms.

If I were the District Judge referred to in the article who was forced to determine the blind shooter's right to bear arms; I would be reminded of an old story:

At the turn of the 20^th century, a man was driving his bride to his abode in a horse drawn carriage.

About four miles from home, the horse stopped in the middle of the dirt road.

The groom exited the carriage and went up to the horse and said:

THAT'S ONCE!

The groom reentered the carriage and the horse became more agreeable for the next mile or so and stopped right in the middle of the road.

The groom exited the carriage and said to the horse:

THAT'S TWICE!

Well the third time the horse exhibited his individual nature, the groom exited the carriage, grabbed a two by four from the back, when up to the horse and smacked it.

The bride became discombobulated:

HOW CAN YOU TREAT A DUMB ANIMAL IN SUCH AN INHUMANE MANNER?

The groom responded to his bride:

THAT'S ONCE!

If I were that judge, I would look down upon that blind shooter and state as clear as possible:

THAT'S ONCE!