Mental Health Restrictions on Firearm Ownership

NAGR’s Position: Oppose

Several well-known murders have been committed by individuals with known mental illnesses. Agencies have therefore taken it upon themselves to place people they consider mentally ill in the NICS database so that they cannot purchase or own firearms.

Current federal law states:

“It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person— (4) has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution;”

There has been a consistent push to grant agencies and individuals the power to deem Americans as “mentally defective,” thereby depriving them of constitutional rights without due process of law.

Mental health restrictions on firearms ownership which circumvent the due process of law guaranteed in the Constitution cause numerous problems.

Stripping law-abiding citizens of their right to keep and bear arms simply because they suffer from a minor medical condition, which research shows makes them no more violent than non-affected individuals, is both unconstitutional and unnecessary.

 

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