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Rule on guns and mentally ill people faces a GOP rollback

A local lawmaker is weighing in on a rule aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of some mentally disabled people on its way to being scrapped by Congress.  Under the rule, the Social Security Administration must provide information to the gun-buying background check system on recipients with a mental disorder so severe they cannot work or handle their own benefit checks. 

 

5th District Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty denounced the vote in the U.S. House.  The rule was put into place near the end of the Obama administration.

 

Republican lawmakers and gun advocates criticize the regulation for reinforcing a negative stereotype that people with a mental disorder are dangerous.

 

Esty says instead of a bipartisan process that balanced both public safety and the rights of individuals with disabilities, the House charged ahead with a hastily written, one-sided measure that would make people less safe.  Esty says the only winners are the gun lobby and those opposed to bipartisan efforts to forge consensus and solve gun violence.

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Dave Rinelli

Local Headlines