Mental Health Background Check in the Works

The Washington Post reported yesterday that in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, there is a serious effort to revive a bill to put mental health problems in the background check system.

Under the bill, states would be given money to help them supply the federal government with information on mental-illness adjudications and other run-ins with the law that are supposed to disqualify individuals from firearms purchases. For the first time, states would face penalties for not keeping the National Instant Criminal Background Check System current.

The legislation, drafted several years ago by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), has twice passed the House, only to die in the Senate. But Cho Seung Hui's rampage Monday has given it new life.

Since 1968, individuals deemed mentally ill by the legal system are not supposed to be able to buy guns. A court's ordering Cho into treatment in late 2005 should have been reported to the federal background check system, congressional aides said. Instead, his background check came up clean, and he legally bought the two handguns used to kill 32 students and teachers before he committed suicide.

I did not know that last part. The problem is that mental health is protected private information according to our laws. This protects your medical history from becoming public knowledge. This is a good thing if you've ever had a problem and need a job. It's a bad thing if your mental condition is a threat to society.
So it appears that the pendulum is swinging once again toward less privacy. I'm not opposed, the proposal above seems like common sense, especially since it's been the law of the land since 1968 that mentally ill individuals can not buy guns.

Yes, it's a little bit like closing the barn door after the horse is gone, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't get done. With the NRA on board and Dingell any brokered deal should sail through the House and Senate. Which indicates once again what the framers intended with our constitution. Consensus bills sail through, everything else goes very slowly.

One other political effect I predict and support will be a relaxation of bans against concealed carry on campuses and other public places. It's already started and will be something else to watch.

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