Mental-health officials clash on N.Y. gun law reporting

[HereSince1628]

4. It sounded like a good idea at the time...keep guns away from dangerous people.

Apparently the New York law was cobbled together in 24 hours and rushed through the legislature without any hearings that could have involved mental health experts.

It provides no standards for what is dangerous enough, so different therapists will report at different thresholds of concern. Within the law are provisions that protect the therapists from liability if they make a mistake. Uniformity would seem a critically important standard for equal justice.

But, that's exactly the same situation that's existed for many years concerning the disqualification of driver's licenses for mental health reasons. Unfortunately, those laws have stood without challenge, and community acceptance is a consideration in considering the validity of a law.

The SAFE act was put together in a tremendous hurry. Such a rush usually means its language was borrowed/modeled from/on existing law or boiler plate. And indeed, this seems pretty similar to the language and intent of legislation concerning disqualification for DLs on the basis of mental illness.

In Obama's presidential non-orders about gun regulation, he specifically indicates that HIPAA will NOT be a problem. I assume that mean he has directed the DOJ and the many Associate Attorney's General to not prosecute providers who violate the language of HIPAA.