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Senate Blocks Rule Tightening Checks On Mentally Ill Gun Buyers
Following the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, a regulation designed to block certain mentally ill people from purchasing firarms was implemented by President Obama, although not taking effect until December 2017. The rule was originally put into place by the President to achieve some small advancement in gun control while Congress refused to act following the Sandy Hook massacre. By a 57-43 margin, the Republican-led Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the regulation which follows the House resolution passed earlier this month.
The rule on the verge of rollback would have required the Social Security Administration to report the records of some mentally ill beneficiaries to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Those who have been deemed mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs — roughly 75,000 people — would have been affected by the rule, according to NPR's Susan Davis.
Interestingly, the NRA and ACLU found themselves both in opposition of the original restriction.
The NRA and the American Civil Liberties Union also opposed Obama's rule — the NRA for its restrictions on the Second Amendment, the ACLU for the possibility it would stereotype the mentally ill as violent.
Senator Chris Murphy delivered a fiery speech against the measure before Wednesday's vote:
"The [Congressional Review Act] we have before us today will make it harder for the federal government to do what we have told them to do for decades, which is to put dangerous people and people who are seriously mentally ill on the list of people who are prohibited from buying a gun."
Murphy added: "If you can't manage your own financial affairs, how can we expect that you're going to be a responsible steward of a dangerous, lethal firearm."