Lawmaker wants checks on private gun sales

[AtheistCrusader]

44. I think what the NRA got instituted there is bad

but it's a natural reaction to some things I have seen right here on DU. In the wake of Sandy Hook Elementary, I saw multiple posts, not from low post count trolls, but long standing members, insisting that people who had been adjudicated mentally deficient/involuntarily committed for mental health, should have their ability to petition the courts to have their firearms re-instated, should be permanently revoked.

When you have people pushing for shit like that, the NRA is going to push back the other way, and they are of course going to push it to some unreasonable extreme.


Now, I'm not saying you supported that permaban bill for mental health issues, (in fact, it was submitted by a republican) but some here did, and we need to craft much more intelligent legislation than that.

Reinstatement should look something like this:

1. Waiting period. (year?)
2. Evaluation period. (6mo/year, licensed psychologist? Maybe a panel of them?)
3. Review of the results of the evaluation period by a circuit court level judge.
4. Remand the petitioner to another evaluation period, or re-instate the rights (all of them, not just firearms, but conservatorship, voting, anything that was adjudicated away initially) fully.

That would be a more intelligent process. OF COURSE the NRA backed bill sucked. We can take that power away from them. Just craft legislation that is approachable, and any reasonable person would support, if you showed it to them without identifying the political affiliation of the author.