Re: there was something wrong with this guyblaisepascalDecember 14 2012, 20:38:05 UTC
HIPPA is not an issue, legally. Federal law bans selling guns to someone who has been adjudicated as a mental defective, or has been committed to a mental institution, and the forms one fills out to buy a gun ask about that. Adjudication is a court record, not a medical one, as is involuntary commitment.
Connecticut law, applicable in the immediate case, bans issuing a handgun eligibility permit to anyone who has been released (within the last 20 years) from custody after a successful insanity defense, or to anyone who has been confined in a mental hospital within the last 12 months by court order. In both cases, it's the court's actions which strip gun eligibility, not a medical review covered by HIPPA.
The difficulty with open medical files for this is that a large chunk of the population has, at one time or another, received treatment for mental illnesses, and the number of mass killers is very small. I know this is the 2nd public mass shooting this week, but this week was exceptional. Even if it were normal, that would be about 100 mass shootings a year, in a population of 300 million, or one mass killer per 3 million people. Any sort of deep dive into medical records to catch that small population is going to have a very high false-positive rate, and won't catch those who have no history of mental illness. It may even be counter-productive, as it may discourage those who need it from seeking help.
Connecticut law, applicable in the immediate case, bans issuing a handgun eligibility permit to anyone who has been released (within the last 20 years) from custody after a successful insanity defense, or to anyone who has been confined in a mental hospital within the last 12 months by court order. In both cases, it's the court's actions which strip gun eligibility, not a medical review covered by HIPPA.
The difficulty with open medical files for this is that a large chunk of the population has, at one time or another, received treatment for mental illnesses, and the number of mass killers is very small. I know this is the 2nd public mass shooting this week, but this week was exceptional. Even if it were normal, that would be about 100 mass shootings a year, in a population of 300 million, or one mass killer per 3 million people. Any sort of deep dive into medical records to catch that small population is going to have a very high false-positive rate, and won't catch those who have no history of mental illness. It may even be counter-productive, as it may discourage those who need it from seeking help.
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