Thumbs down: Guns for the mentally ill?

Thumbs down to the 115th Congress for its first act on firearms safety. Strike that. Firearms policy. It’s difficult to detect any safety in a resolution that will make it easier for mentally ill people to purchase firearms. The measure, which passed on largely party-line votes, would undo an Obama administration rule requiring the Social Security Administration to add about 75,000 people, currently on disability support, to the national background check database and deny them gun purchases. These are people with mental illnesses so severe that they’re deemed unable to work or manage their own finances.

Critics say the rule stigmatizes the mentally ill. It’s true that the mentally ill are responsible for a minuscule percentage of violent crime, but it’s also true that half of all gun deaths are suicides, and that people suffering depression are four times more likely than the general population to kill themselves. Moreover, federal law prohibits people with serious mental illnesses from owning firearms. The Social Security Administration rule is a narrowly crafted effort at enforcing that law - to save lives. Shouldn’t Congress be pursuing the same goal?