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The Obama administration on Friday announced executive
orders designed to keep weapons from the mentally ill, putting the NRA on the
spot after their vague assertions after the Sandy Hook massacre that the real
issue was a lack of adequate mental health care in the United States.
According to The Hill, the plan includes two proposed
regulations: one would clarify who may possess guns, while the second seeks to
shore up a porous national background check system.
TISEMENT
“While the vast majority of Americans who experience a
mental illness are not violent, in some cases when persons with a mental
illness do not receive the treatment they need, the result can be tragedies
such as homicide or suicide,” a White House statement said.
In the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, President Obama
announced plans to move forward with nearly two dozen initiatives to curb
gun violence but all of the proposed bills were derailed by opposition from the
NRA and other gun groups.
The Hill reports that the measures announced Friday include a new effort to
strengthen the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Currently, gun dealers are required to use the system to screen for felons,
drug abusers, the severely mentally ill or others who are prohibited from
owning firearms. But the database is woefully incomplete.
Both EO’s
address the ability of states to provide information about the mentally ill and
those seeking mental health treatment to the NCIS.
would formally give permission to states to submit “the limited
information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous
hands,” without having to worry about the privacy provisions in the law
known as HIPAA.
The other
proposal would clarify that those who are involuntarily committed to a mental
institution — both inpatient and outpatient — count under the law as
“committed to a mental institution.” According to the administration,
this change will help clarify for states what information to provide to the
background check system, as well as who is barred from having guns.
advocates was that Obama had engaged in a quiet, Friday afternoon unveiling of
more gun restrictions.
At the conservative website Townhall.com, their report on
the new developments included this:
wary of the phrase ‘common-sense gun safety,’ especially when it comes from gun
control advocates. No ‘common-sense’ gun control law has ever reduced crime or
mass shootings. If advocates have to tell you they aren’t infringing on your
Second Amendment rights, they are probably infringing on your Second Amendment
rights.”
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