Congress says let the mentally ill buy guns---ACLU supports NRA

[wordpix]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/opinion/congress-says-let-the-mentally-ill-buy-guns.html?_r=0


For all their dysfunction, the Republican Senate and House have managed to act with lightning speed in striking down a sensible Obama administration rule designed to stop people with severe mental problems from buying guns.
snip

The Senate voted Wednesday to join the House in revoking the rule. It would have required the Social Security Administration to add about 75,000 people, currently on disability support, to the national background check database and deny them gun purchases. These individuals suffer schizophrenia, psychotic disorders and other problems to such an extent that they are unable to manage their financial affairs and other basic tasks without help.

snip: Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, envisioned people with “an eating disorder” being barred from buying a gun. To the contrary, the rule was focused narrowly on disabled individuals who require a trustee for personal management. They would have had the right to appeal. more...

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/lawmaker-news/318377-senate-should-not-fight-trump-and-public-opinion-on-guns-for

snip: Between 6,000 and 18,000 persons with mental illness kill themselves with guns every year. Approximately half of all mass murders are people with mental illness. And those are just the fatalities. Many more are injured. The Senate resolution takes 75,000 seriously mentally ill who would likely be put in the NICS gun background check system out of it by fiat.

snip: But, the rollback has supporters from several camps; both the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union supported the disapproval, with the ACLU saying the rule assumed that all people with severe mental illnesses were violent and lumped them all together as one group rather than judging them as individuals.