Congress Is Repealing Rules To Keep Guns From The Mentally Ill

[Native]

Link to tweet

By law, people who have been “adjudicated as a mental defective” by a court or other authority, such as the Social Security Administration, are barred from buying guns and are supposed to be added to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, as it’s known.

The slaughter of 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut by a mentally ill man in 2012 prompted the Obama administration to renew the effort, leading to the Social Security Administration finally releasing a rule in 2015 that was finalized just last December.

Because the Congressional Review Act allows for Congress to repeal rules within 60 "legislative" days of being adopted...

The GOP-led Congress, claiming that the provision infringes on the gun rights of disabled people, is about to do that. The House already voted for the repeal, and the Senate is set to follow suit Wednesday, despite Republicans’ frequent assertions that the way to deal with gun violence is to deal with mental illness.

“This regulation unfairly stigmatizes people with disabilities. If the regulation is not repealed, it will allow the agency to very unfairly deprive Social Security recipients of their Second Amendment rights,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “The regulation would result in disability recipients being reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System as ineligible to own a firearm, and thus have their Second Amendment rights violated.”

[Vinca]

1. And yet guns are not allowed in the halls of Congress.

[Turbineguy]

2. This has to be good for those

who wish to see slower economic growth.

On the other hand, on-line retailers and cable TV providers should do well.should do well

[flor-de-jasmim]

3. Wouldn't a clearer header be that they are repealing bills THAT keep...?

I had to read through the article to figure out what was wrong with the repeal!

[Native]

4. You should post that in the article's comment section!

[loyalsister]

5. Broken clock

I know people want to believe that only people with mental illness kill others, but the opposite is true. This catch all gives comfort to the people who believe that they have a constitutional right to kill others.
It invades privacy of already marginalized people.

[Lee-Lee]

6. Even the ACLU supports this change- the law as-is discriminates and denies due process rights

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ACLU.pdf

The law as changed a few years ago assumes that if you have a representative payee for your social security that means you are automatically mentally defective under the law, and uses that to blanket deny people exercise of rights.

The problem is this simply is not true. There are plenty of people who are fully mentally fit who have a family member listed as a representative payee because they manage their finances for convenience sake or for other reasons. You don't get an mental evaluation of any form when applying to have designated your payee.

So with a quick policy change they blanket denied tens of thousands of people the ability to exercise their rights based on a flawed assumption. With no due process, no hearings, no warning.

I don't get how anyone who considers themselves a progressive could support that. Yeah, it has to do with guns, and I get that many here have situational ethics where they treat exercise of rights they don't like differently. But think about the president this sets- today they deny this right based on flimsy reasoning with no due process, what is to stop Trump from down the road saying "well these people can't even handle their own finances no way they can handle the responsibility of being and informed voter" and with the same kind of policy change swipe away the right to vote.

Just because you don't like a certain right doesn't mean we should be applauding when it's taken away without any due process from a lot of people who legally don't meet the criteria to be denied it.

Those who are actually mentally ill still can and should have the right removed- but do it the right way that the law provides for with a hearing and due process rights, not with a blanket assumption that "well if you are having someone else handle you SS finances you must be a dangerously mentally ill person".