Agree Ccrider, also, I can’t see diminishing Card’s role in this. If a man can sense that he is mentally and morally degenerating because he is entertaining violent ideations and asks for help, he is on the way to doing exactly what the impaired driver does who hands his keys to another.
That would-be drunk driver is not particularly heroic for recognizing he got drunk after driving himself to an establishment to start drinking. In my mind he has basically done the bare minimum required in a society where we want to be allowed to socially drink.
Supposing no one will drive him home, well, go outside and sit on a bench. You bought a car, you drove it to a bar and started drinking. Technically, no one can fail you at this point. Don’t trust yourself anymore? Give up drinking or give up driving.
I mean that's the nature of impairment. I'm a mental health clin and I have a whole career of anecdotes when working with folks, tons of folks get in trouble because the nature of alcohol is it impairs judgement, same with serious medical concerns, or mental illness.
People look for anything in their deteriorating condition for a reason to point and say "No I'm fine", case in point people dealing with mom/dad with dementia and they're hell bent on getting a car and cruising the world. Usual justification is "Well if I crash and I die, then it was my time!" but reality is usually they survive the crash, or kill someone else, or even run over a kid on a bike.
My own brother who is active duty tried to end his own life twice in the last 3 years before he was finally able to admit he had a serious problem and didn't try to cover it up. He's grounded now, well supported and gave up his weapons. I actually am very proud of him for realizing finally it was way outside of his control and wasn't safe, last 3 years were hell and he absolutely fixated on me as a blame target as I was a pretty obvious boundary that raised the alarm during his first attempt which was serious, sustained and quite violent.
Its not just "Personal" responsibility, which I like, and practice in spades, but we all collectively should hope for accountability, and accountability absolutely comes with risks, letting a friend know you're worried about them often comes with the standard response people oft give when they are faced with a dilemma they don't know how to navigate of "Deny, deflect, counterattack".
Its awful when someone at a range flags you, especially when we're with our kids, most people have no problem stepping in, but a lot of folks will hand waive it and just be like "Guy is a fool, we're out!" There is an element of risk to every bit of that.
We all navigate this with the resources we have, and connections we've made and the risks we're comfortable with, some of us are way better equipped than others, and we all have different ethics and points of view. I love to shoot, and will bring my kids, but if one of them later had active suicidal ideation, I'd frankly find a different past time all-together, because no amount of "What ifs" or worries over society are worth losing them, other folks would be like "I'll buy a safe!" neither are terrible responses.
Heck its a risk even writing this to some degree. Putting yourself out there comes with a lot of things.
