Dementia and firearm ownership

My sympathies. I've seen it. One gun related incident was at a range, where an old timer would refuse to stop shooting during cease fires for target replacement. Got agitated that he knew how to shoot. The son had to wrestle the gun away from him as he had to be removed from the range.

In TX, we have silver alerts where they announce on the highway freeway electronic signs that some elder is on the loose. I have a friend who is elderly and his wife started calling around for him. Luckily, he just stopped but didn't tell her that he would be late.
 
You definitely made the right (albeit difficult) decision. We went through a similar situation with my grandfather. It's not easy, but protecting him and those around him is the most important.
 
I feel your pain.

I had to do that with my Mother last Thanksgiving. Her memory has been getting worse and worse over the last couple of years.

When my brother moved in with her for awhile, I didn't want the possibility of her forgetting that he was there and something very bad happening.

I debated with myself discussing it first. My brother counseled me not to, but Mom's memory is weird -- some things she remembers just fine, others not at all. And you can never tell which will be which.

So, I discussed it with her and, as expected, got something of a fight. I finally laid it out -- Mom, it's my gun (it is), and if something happens I'm responsible.

She finally agreed, I guess when she saw that I wasn't going to back down. It's come up several times since, and has progress from "Why did you take my gun" to "do you know what happened to the gun."

I'm now telling her that she gave it to me for safe keeping.

I feel like crap lying to my Mother, but it's a lie of convenience and peace, because I "remind" her that she decided to give up the gun around the time she decided to give up driving (which she did).

That hasn't stopped her from somehow coming up with the idea that my brother and I forced her to stop driving and sold her car out from under her....
 
My mother in law had dementia. When we took her car, she called the sheriff and reported that her daughter had stolen her car. Took a couple of days to sort that one out, chiefly because the deputy who responded chose not to recognize my wife's power of attorney. She lived with us for a while, and I was always double-checking the locks on the gun cabinets and so on.

My dad died of congestive heart failure, with his mind in pretty good shape. He was a very bright man, and very considerate, and made a point of giving up, in succession, his access to his wood shop, his driving privileges, and his guns, all because he felt that his strength and reflexes were deteriorating to the point of him being unsafe. He said that he wanted to give those things up early so that he wouldn't have to put me on the spot of asking him to give them up.

It is a tough thing, and you have my sympathies. This is one of those times that you have to be content with knowing you are doing the right thing even if you get resistance and criticism.
 
As an FFL, I deal with this from another angle, i.e. buying guns from seniors going into care facilities. I see a lot of it, either the kids bring in da's guns, or the wife and husband come in and sell them. I always give them as much for the guns as I can afford to, in just a few years that may be me on the other side of the counter.
 
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