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I think that we will end up with a stupid system that will any arbitrary medical or governmental entity to permanently bar any one person from owning firearms simply by declaring that person to be "mentally unfit."

I believe that the NRA is wrong to support on this bill.

A spokesman for the National Rifle Association, Andrew Arulanandam, said his organization continues to "be supportive of the legislation that would add the names of those adjudicated as mentally defective to the national instant check list."

I agree with the Liberty Coalition and Gun Owners of America that this is a horrendously bad idea.

From a letter (it's in Word format) they have published: “Action to retroactively label people mentally defective without notice and a hearing is a violation of basic fundamental fairness and due process. Further, now declaring persons who in the past voluntarily submitted to mental health evaluation and/or treatment as mentally defective would deter people from seeking mental health assistance in the future. Finally, millions of Americans and veterans who might have undergone post-combat zone counseling or other treatment could find themselves unknowingly in violation of federal gun laws, or, lose their security clearance or employment.”

After Clinton did the same thing to over 90,000 vets in 1998, Congress passed a law that I think GW signed stating that the VA Hospitals are specifically prohibited from submitting any info on a patients mental health to any federal or state law enforcement agency absent a judges ruling. The law apparently has considerable teeth in the form of monetary relief to victims. That's what I was told by the Miami VA a couple of years ago. I forget the name of the laws that were hooked together.

The NRA is ABSOLUTELY on the wrong side of this issue.

A spokesman for the National Rifle Association, Andrew Arulanandam, said his organization continues to "be supportive of the legislation that would add the names of those adjudicated as mentally defective to the national instant check list."
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, applauded the Senate committee.

Second Amendment Sisters have opposed this from the beginning. I can't believe that the NRA is on the same side as the "brady bunch" on this! The NRA has become "mentally defective". I stopped supporting the NRA a long time ago.