Don't Panic
I’ve been seeing this article getting passed around on social media, but the situation isn’t as alarming as some think. The bottom line is that the rule they want to repeal went into effect in December of last year - only 10 weeks ago. Even if the regulation is repealed, anyone who would would have been blocked from buying a gun 3 months ago will still be blocked from buying one.
As for the rule itself, what it did was require Social Security to notify the FBI of anyone receiving disability checks who had been determined to be too mentally ill to manage their own affairs, so that they could be flagged during background checks. While this would make it easier to make sure they don’t fall through the cracks, we will still have all of the other ways we’ve used to screen out the mentally ill from gun ownership. That won’t be changing.
So, yes, it’s a good regulation, but it’s repeal won’t mean that we’ll suddenly be flooded with mentally ill people buying guns unchecked or anything like that. It’ll just be going back to how we handled it as of November.