Does H.R. 2640 ban guns for anyone who’s ever seen a psychiatrist or received any other mental health treatment?
Absolutely not. H.R. 2640 doesn’t ban anyone from owning guns–it only makes records available on those who are already “prohibited persons.” When it comes to mental health conditions, the only people who can’t own a gun under federal law are those who have “been adjudicated as a mental defective or . . . been committed to any mental institution.” Regulations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) define those terms too broadly in some ways, but narrowly in others. H.R. 2640 refers to those definitions, but only to help agencies figure out what records to provide to NICS; it doesn’t ban anyone new from buying or owning a gun. Some critics of H.R. 2640 claim that BATFE’s regulation would impose a gun ban based on any psychiatrist’s diagnosis that a person “[i]s a danger to himself or to others . . . or . . . [l]acks the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs.” But that’s not true, because basic legal definitions mean that an “adjudication” ca
Related Questions
- Are there treatment interventions that can effectively respond to the mental health needs of youth in the juvenile justice system?
- Does H.R. 2640 ban guns for anyone who’s ever seen a psychiatrist or received any other mental health treatment?
- What are the preauthorization/concurrent care requirements for mental health treatment?
