The “You’re Crazy” Loophole
Looks like the house is trying to close it:
Since 1968, federal law has prohibited the sale of guns to anyone adjudged mentally ill. But more than half the states cannot or will not supply the necessary mental health records to the FBI database that is used to conduct background checks on would-be gun buyers.
That could change following last week’s massacre at Virginia Tech. The U.S. House is considering a bill that would encourage states to share mental health records with the federal government by giving them more than $1 billion in grants to help cover the costs.
Privacy laws and lack of technical ability now prevent 28 states from sharing such information with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System based in Clarksburg, W.Va., according to a Justice Department report.
Privacy: It’s about more than abortions!
April 26th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Damn straight. Whoever said that the pseudo-constitutional right to privacy only guarantees one’s right to kill the unborn? As sure as David Acer’s right to privacy guaranteed him the right to infect his patients with AIDS, the next Seungh Hui Cho’s must have a privacy right to obtain illegal firearms to prepare for the next rampage.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Sorry, Xrlq, I was speaking liberal and being a smart ass. When you or I say privacy, we mean privacy. When our left leaning friends say privacy, they usually mean abortion. Well, not every time. But you get my point.
And, as i said before, i’m not inherently against the idea of putting that stuff in the NICS.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Once upon a time I read that 1 in 4 people take Prozac or some kind of antidepressant. That makes 1 in 4 people mentally ill and makes denying guns to 25% of the nation pretty easy.
Situational depression, say a bad divorce, that gets you on an antidepressant for a year destroys your insurability. Now they are trying to make it destroy your ability to purchase a gun?!