Blunt backs gun bill that could complicate mental health push
WASHINGTON — Even as Congress moves forward on a bipartisan proposal to strengthen the nation’s mental health care system, Sen. Roy Blunt and other Republicans are backing controversial legislation that could make it easier for mentally impaired individuals to buy firearms.
Blunt, R-Mo., says the bill would provide those who have recovered from mental illness a way to regain their Second Amendment rights. But gun-control advocates say it’s a dangerous proposal that could put guns in the wrong hands — and jeopardize the broader push for comprehensive mental health reform.
At issue is legislation championed by Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and the Senate’s No. 2 GOP leader, called the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act. The bill’s primary focus is on helping the mentally ill receive treatment — instead of prison time — when they run afoul of the law.
The bill would encourage state and local governments to create pretrial screening programs to identify mentally ill offenders and help them get treatment. It would also direct federal judges to operate "mental health court" pilot programs, allowing mentally ill offenders to be diverted from prison to residential treatment facilities, and require training for law enforcement to better respond to individuals suffering a mental health crisis.
"The goal of this legislation is to help those suffering from mental illness find treatment, support and a path to recovery," Cornyn wrote recently.
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But his bill also includes contentious provisions that would make it easier for mentally ill individuals to have their records removed from the federal background check system, which gun sellers use to determine whether someone is legally allowed to buy a firearm. Under current law, individuals are barred from buying a gun if they have been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution or if a court has deemed them mentally incompetent.
They can seek to have those restrictions lifted through a restoration process that varies from state to state. In Missouri, for example, individuals can petition a court to have their gun rights restored, and judges must grant such petitions if they determine the individual does not pose a danger to public safety and if restoring their gun rights is not contrary to the public interest.
Under Cornyn’s bill, federal law enforcement officials would be required to remove the records of mentally ill individuals from the background check system "upon being made aware" the person is no longer considered mentally incompetent or committed to a psychiatric hospital.
The National Rifle Association has endorsed Cornyn’s bill, saying it would grant "due process protections" to those who have been added to the background check system because of a mental illness. "The bill would also significantly expand avenues of relief from firearm prohibitions for others, including those who have their record expunged, those who are no longer subject to an order for treatment, and those who have been granted relief by a state program," the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action states on its website.
Blunt echoed that assessment, saying the due process provisions sparked his support.
"So that if you’ve sought help in mental health, but you've been far enough into that that you might otherwise be on a list, that you at least have a way to go have a judicial appeal," Blunt said.
But gun-control advocates say Cornyn’s bill does not create an appeals process. Instead, they say, it would automatically restore of an individual’s gun rights — without any review. Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said under Cornyn’s bill, someone who had been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution would be eligible to have a firearm as soon as the commitment order expired, which in some cases would be just days after they are released.
"You are creating blanket restoration … for people who could in fact be quite dangerous to themselves or others," Horwitz said. His group has called on Congress and state legislatures to pass uniform standards that restore firearms rights to those barred because of mental illness — after a qualified clinician has evaluated that individual and can attest he is unlikely to relapse or pose a danger to himself or others.
A spokesman for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Cornyn's bill could be a step in the wrong direction.
"If there’s a question about whether that bill would make it easier for someone with mental health problems to get a gun, Claire believes that’s something that needs to be fixed before the bill gets serious consideration," said John LaBombard, her spokesman.
Cornyn wants to add his proposal to a comprehensive mental health bill gaining traction in Congress. But Horwitz says if the two bills are combined, that could kill the broader mental health bill.
"It might make it impossible to get (broader reform) done, and that would be a shame because we need to improve and modernize our mental health systems," he said.
Horwitz and Blunt agree on one thing: Most mentally ill individuals are not violent and not likely to commit the kinds of massacres that have sparked the volatile debate over gun control and mental illness.
"This is much bigger than who is on the NICS list," said Blunt, using the acronym for the federal background check system, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. "This basically should be a debate about what do we do to create (greater) access (to care) so you don’t have people who have an untreated mental health problem."
Horwitz said the two issues — guns and mental health — should be dealt with on separate tracks.
"Our mental health system in the United States needs more funding and needs to be better organized — not because it will stop gun violence but because it will improve the lives of millions of people," he said. And it should not, he added, become a vehicle to "to throw some giveaways to the gun lobby."