Face of Nation : President Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that “mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,” but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.
Trump did so without any fanfare. In fact, the news that Trump had signed the bill was at the bottom of a White House email that alerted the media to other legislation signed by the president. And it came after the House and Senate, both of which were Republican-controlled at the time, passed a bill, H.J. Res 40, which revoked the Obama-era regulation. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Sam Johnson, a Texas Republican who retired at the end of 2018.
The nullified rule had added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and people deemed unfit to handle their financial affairs to the national background check database. Had that rule taken effect, the Obama administration predicted it would have added 75,000 names to the national background check database.
Obama had recommended the regulation after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 first graders and six others dead. The measure sought to block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns. But gun rights advocates insisted the Obama rule infringed on Second Amendment rights to buy guns, even though the regulation specifically targeted people who were diagnosed with mentally illness.
The National Rifle Association even “applauded” Trump’s action at the time. Then-executive director Chris Cox said the move “marks a new era for law-abiding gun owners, as we now have a president who respects and supports our arms.” But Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a leading gun control advocate in Congress, denounced the move and blasted the GOP.
“Republicans always say we don’t need new gun laws, we just need to enforce the laws already on the books,” he said in a statement. “But the bill signed into law today undermines enforcement of existing laws that Congress passed to make sure the background check system had complete information.” Groups like the National Alliance of Mental Illness have accused the Trump Administration of rolling back other Obama-era policies designed to help the mentally ill.
Meanwhile, mental health experts accused Trump of focusing on mental illness to avoid taking politically risky steps like banning high-powered weapons like the ones that were used in the El Paso and Dayton massacres.
