Bill adding mental health records to gun checks hits a hurdle with some Senate Republicans

With the help of 25 Republicans, Democrats passed a bill in March that would put New Hampshire on the long list of states that provide certain mental health records for gun background checks. Late Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans voted to recommend the full Senate reject it over the objections of the committee’s two Democrats. 

It was unclear Thursday when the Senate will take up House Bill 1711, which was filed in response to the November fatal shooting of a state hospital security guard by a former patient who had his guns confiscated in 2016 over mental health concerns.

Under the bill, records of an involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility would be reported to the federal background database. It would not apply to individuals who are held and committed on an emergency basis.

Before voting to recommend the bill be defeated, Sen. Bill Gannon, a Sandown Republican, criticized the bill as a confiscation of legally owned firearms without due process. 

Gun-rights Republicans split, pass bill adding mental health records to gun checks

The bill, however, would require a court hearing before guns are taken, during which the individual would be represented by legal counsel. It would also include a legal path to regain the right to own guns. And under federal law, it is illegal for an individual who has been committed to a psychiatric facility to purchase or possess firearms. 

“This is … the confiscation of firearms from individuals based on psychological and bureaucratic assessments,” Gannon said. “It’s bypassing due process that should accompany any infringement on our constitutional Second Amendment rights.”

Gannon added, “The most troubling aspect of the bill is it doesn’t require a criminal act to strip a citizen of their rights, just merely the judgment of unfitness (by) officials is enough to seize legally owned firearms.”

The legislation would apply to limited situations.  

That would not include people who voluntarily seek hospital admissions or are held on an emergency basis prior to a court hearing. 

It would apply to people who are charged criminally and found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity, and people who are not facing criminal charges but are involuntarily admitted because of dangerousness. 

An effort in the House to limit it to people facing criminal charges failed in the House.

The sponsors, Rep. Terry Roy, a Deerfield Republican, and Rep. David Meuse, a Portsmouth Democrat, knew they’d face a fight from Second Amendment rights groups and Republicans. The two have never agreed on gun bills and they hoped their unlikely alliance on this one would overcome that opposition.

Republican Sens. Sharon Carson of Londonderry and Daryl Abbas of Salem joined Gannon in opposing the bill. Democratic Sens. Shannon Chandley of Amherst and Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua voted in support of it. 

Chandley called the legislation a small but important step toward preventing gun violence.