Being a huge animal lover, part of me agrees with this but at the same time I don't. She shouldn't be arrested seeing as she wasn't on her medication, she wasn't in the right state of mind. Some sort of action should be taken, however, but being arrested is not one of them.

73, she still needs to be held accountable for her actions. What if it had been a person she'd shot?

If they can prove it , they can say they were insane basically and mentally ill they will get punished but it's more like going to mental hospital and getting better not jail

Yes, she should be arrested, without question. There seems to be more and more sympathy for people who don't take their medication when they have a diagnosed mental illness (and if this woman was on medications, she has been diagnosed and is supposed to be on treatment), and I think it's crap. Part of the responsibility for treatment lies in the person who is sick, and if she willingly stopped taking her meds, she damn sure is responsible for her actions while she was off them.

It could have been something as simple as she forgot to take them that day, or she was late to take them and then couldn't because her paranoia was preventing her from thinking "oh I need to take my meds." I'm definitely of the thinking that she needs help, not prison time. There are places she can go where people can keep an eye on her and make sure she is taking her medicine. Her going to prison might just make her illness much worse.

How do you know OP had the gun in their house? The mom could have had her own gun.