h.3560 is legislation that adds persons deemed mentally ill to the list of individuals not allowed to own or purchase a gun. We would probably all agree that an armed severe mental illness patient would be a threat to public safety. However, the bill is inartfully drawn. It contains this language:
Adjudicated as a mental defective’ means a determination by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease
A court, board, commission, or other lawful authority is a huge loophole. So far, our efforts to only allow a court to adjudicate have been defeated. I’m still skeptical of h.3560, however, limiting the adjudications to only courts, would help most of my heartburn.
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