The rules are the latest set of executive actions in the wake of the massacre at Newtown. W.H.: New gun rules for mentally ill

The Obama administration proposed two new federal rules Friday that it said would provide more information about the mentally ill to gun-background-check databases.

The rules, proposed by the Justice and Health and Human Services departments, would allow the federal database access to some mental health records by giving it an exemption from existing privacy law and “clarify” that people involuntarily committed to both inpatient and outpatient institutions could be prohibited from purchasing guns.


The proposed rules are the latest set of executive actions in the wake of the December 2012 school massacre at Newtown, Conn. Last January, President Barack Obama announced 23 executive actions and called for a host of legislation that included universal background checks for gun purchases and a new ban on assault weapon sales.

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Federal agencies have provided 1.2 million records identifying people not allowed to buy guns because of mental illness because of Obama’s 2013 executive orders, the White House said Friday.

The White House said the proposed rules are meant to strengthen the background check system, yet background check requirements do not apply to the millions of gun transactions that take place outside of licensed dealers — at gun shows or online, for instance. The Senate last April rejected an expanded, but not universal, background checks bill. The House held no gun control votes.

The proposed rules will not go into effect until after a 60-day comment period that begins next Tuesday , followed by a period during which the agencies will review the comments and issue first an interim and then a final rule.

Before the Newtown massacre, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote that the health care privacy law known as HIPAA does not prevent state court and justice systems from sharing mental health information with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. States could, Sebelius wrote in an Aug. 2012 letter to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), compel agencies that are covered by HIPAA to share information with the federal background check database.

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The proposed new HHS rule would allow HIPAA-covered agencies “an express permission to submit to the background check system the limited information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands,” the White House said.

The DOJ rule adding a gun purchase prohibition for those involuntary committed to mental health outpatient facilities would have prevented the shooter in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre from legally buying a weapon because he had been ordered by a judge to seek outpatient mental health treatment.

The proposals follow the executive actions Vice President Joe Biden announced in August that banned the re-importation of military weapons sold in other countries and forbade certain felons from evading background checks.

While Obama and Biden announced the first batch of executive actions together during a White House gun control event and Biden unveiled the August set during the swearing-in ceremony of B. Todd Jones, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Friday’s news came via an e-mailed statement from the White House.

Biden did offer his support for the rules via Twitter.

“Today, we are taking steps to further strengthen the federal background check system. It’s time Congress joins us in this effort,” Biden tweeted.