Page 8A
NATION
East Oregonian
Congress blocks rule barring
mentally impaired from guns
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— Congress on Wednesday
sent President Donald Trump
legislation blocking an
Obama-era rule designed to
keep guns out of the hands
of certain mentally disabled
people.
On a vote of 57-43, the
Senate backed the resolution,
just one of several early
steps by the Republican-led
Congress to undo regulations
implemented by former
President Barack Obama.
The House had passed the
measure earlier this year. The
White House has signaled
Trump will sign the legisla-
tion.
The Obama rule would
have prevented an estimated
75,000 people with mental
disorders from being able to
purchase a firearm. It was
crafted as part of Obama’s
efforts to strengthen the
federal background check
system in the wake of the
2012 massacre of 20 young
students and six staff at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut.
Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old
man with a variety of impair-
ments, including Asperger’s
syndrome
and
obses-
sive-compulsive
disorder,
shot and killed his mother
at their home, then went to
school where he killed the
students, adults and himself.
The Obama administration
rule required the Social Secu-
rity Administration to send
in the names of beneficiaries
with mental impairments
who also have a third party
manage their benefits.
But lawmakers, with the
backing of the National Rifle
Association and advocacy
groups for the disabled,
opposed the regulation and
encouraged Congress to
undertake a rarely successful
process designed to void
regulations that Congress
takes issue with.
With a Republican ally in
the White House, the GOP
has moved aggressively on
several fronts to rescind some
of the Obama administra-
AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File
In this 2012 file photo, parents leave a staging area
after being reunited with their children following a
shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Conn., where Adam Lanza fatally shot
27 people, including 20 children. The Republican-led
Senate voted Wednesday to block an Obama-era
regulation that would prevent people with mental
disorders from being able to purchase a firearm.
tion’s final regulations on
the environment, financial
reporting and now guns.
Under an expedited process
established through the
Congressional Review Act,
a regulation is made invalid
when a simple majority of
both chambers pass a joint
resolution of disapproval and
the president signs it.
Sen. Charles Grassley,
R-Iowa, spearheaded the
repeal effort and said the regu-
lation unfairly stigmatizes the
disabled and infringes on their
constitutional right to bear
arms. He said that the mental
disorders covered through
the regulation are filled with
“vague characteristics that
do not fit into the federal
mentally defective standard”
prohibiting someone from
buying or owning a gun.
Grassley cited eating and
sleep disorders as examples
of illnesses that could allow a
beneficiary to be reported to
the background check system
if they also have a third party
to manage their benefits.
“If a specific individual is
likely to be violent due to the
nature of their mental illness,
then the government should
have to prove it,” Grassley
said.
Sen. Chris Murphy,
D-Conn., said he didn’t know
how he could explain to his
constituents that Congress
was making it easier rather
than harder for people with
serious mental illness to have
a gun.
“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,”
Murphy said.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.,
argued that anyone who
thinks they’re treated unfairly
can appeal, and are likely to
win if they’re not a danger
to themselves or others. But
Grassley said federal law
requires a formal hearing and
judgment before depriving
someone of owning a firearm
due to mental illness.
Gun rights groups weren’t
the only organizations upset
about the Obama admin-
istration’s regulation. The
American Civil Liberties
Union criticized it, too. The
ACLU said the rule advanced
a harmful stereotype that
people with mental disabili-
ties, “a vast and diverse group
of citizens, are violent.” More
than a dozen advocacy groups
for the disabled also opposed
the Obama administration’s
regulation.
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