cuchulainn
Member
New Hampshire: "Guns and the Legislature " (move to L&P)
from the Concord Monitor
http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/state2003/vnews_guns_2003.shtml
from the Concord Monitor
http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/state2003/vnews_guns_2003.shtml
Guns and the Legislature
Monday, Mar 17, 2003
Valley News
That the Gun Owners of New Hampshire is now asserting the right of the mentally ill to break federal law and buy firearms is to be expected. The gun-rights group has long distinguished itself by bad judgment. That the Legislature appears ready to acquiesce may be only slightly less shocking but far more disappointing.
The gun group, of course, would dispute that it is trying to keep gun-shop doors open to those whom courts have found to be mentally ill. But that is exactly what it is doing by opposing an eminently sensible proposal before the Legislature. Under a measure now being considered by the New Hampshire Senate Judiciary Committee, the state court system would be obliged to inform the National Instant Criminal Background Check System when someone is legally declared mentally ill and therefore ineligible to possess firearms.
The proposal would not make it illegal for those people to buy or possess guns; federal law already does. The mentally ill - along with felons, fugitives, minors and those dishonorably discharged from the military - are among the categories of people banned from buying or owning guns by the 1968 Gun Control Act.
What the New Hampshire law would do is make sure that relevant information is entered into the federal database so that a mandatory background check would notify dealers that those people can't legally obtain firearms.
"Common sense, as well as federal law, states that mentally ill persons need help, not firearms," said Sen. Sylvia Larsen of Concord. But Gun Owners of New Hampshire is a group that hasn't deferred to common sense before, and it's apparently not about to start now.
The organization warns that the measure provides no way for removing names that have incorrectly been forwarded to the FBI, that people once placed on the list have no way of getting off of it and, yes, that it's an attack on Second Amendment rights.
Chuck Drew, executive director of New Hampshire Ceasefire, a group that works to reduce gun violence in the state, says that the FBI has assured him that any name that has been mistakenly put on the list can be easily removed. Considering that the background-check system is a database that is able to add names at the direction of the New Hampshire court system, we can't conceive of a reason why it couldn't similarly be instructed to remove one.
As for the permanence of correctly listed names, Drew concedes that it's true that those who are put on the list will remain there forever, even if they recover from their illness.
The problem, if there is one, is not with the proposal before the Legislature, but with federal law, he says. If someone meets one of the criteria that requires the forfeiture of the right to possess a gun - being found not guilty by reason of insanity; being found not competent to stand trial due to a mental disease; having a permanent guardian appointed because of mental illness; or having been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility on a non-emergency basis for more than 10 days - federal law does not allow for a later removal of that prohibition.
Maybe that is unfair and federal law should be changed, although only after careful study. But at this point, New Hampshire lawmakers face a choice: leap to the defense of this hypothetical and presumably tiny group of people, or help the federal government keep guns out of the hands of those with impaired judgment. It seems like an easy call to us, but Drew warns that the measure might not even get out of the Judiciary Committee.
It would be unfortunate if gun groups prove to have more influence over New Hampshire lawmakers than do the demands of public safety.
Monday, Mar 17, 2003
© Concord Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot
