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NYS Gun Law Renews Concerns Among Advocacy Community

Mental Health Weekly ��December 15, 2014

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As new numbers roll in regarding the number of people who could lose their weapons because they are considered mentally unstable, based on a new report on ���������� state’s gun control law, mental health advocates have once again raised concerns

about the law that they said stigmatizes and criminalizes people with mental illness.

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When the ���������� Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act passed in 2013, members of the mental health community had discussions with legislators and hosted public forums amid concerns that the legislation perpetuates stigma and creates barriers to those seeking care (see MHW, Feb. 11, 2013).

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One of the provisions of the gun control law requires designated mental health professionals who believe a mental health patient made a credible threat of harming others to report the threat to a mental health director, who would then have to report serious threats to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.

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A patient’s gun could be taken from him or her. The Post-Standard in Syracuse on December 2 reported that under this provision of the SAFE Act, mental health providers have reported 38,718 at-risk patients. Of this figure, the state identified 278 licensed gun owners who could lose their weapons because they are considered mentally unstable.

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“Over the last year and a half or more, we’ve had nearly 39,000 people put on the registry, coming in at an average of 500 a week,” Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the ���������� Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (����������), told MHW.

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The stated goal of the program is to identify dangerous people with mental illness and deny their access to guns, said Rosenthal. A major concern, noted Rosenthal, is that the law discourages people from seeking or disclosing information in care.

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“How do you measure those who didn’t show up or feel comfortable sharing information?” he noted.

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Rosenthal added, “It sends a message to those who might need care that there are a lot of people who are going to be in a database.”

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The ���������� Times reported that under federal and most state laws, people with serious mental illnesses lose their gun rights only if they have been involuntarily committed to a mental health center, or have been legally designated as mentally ill or incompetent, both relatively rare occurrences. A small number of states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland

and ����������, have stricter criteria for people with serious mental health issues to purchase and possess firearms.

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If ���������� state authorities find a person in the database has a gun permit — necessary to purchase a handgun in ���������� — they are required to revoke the license and seize any guns. The people in the database are barred from obtaining a permit until their names are cleared.

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Victims of violence

“People in our community are not violent,” said Rosenthal. He noted that people with mental illness are linked to as little as 4 percent of violence in this country and are 11 times more likely to be the victims of such violence.

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The 278 figure noted in the report amounts to seven tenths of 1 percent of individuals who were found to possess guns. “That’s a very small amount,” he said.

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“Gun violence is a huge issue,” he said. “It’s about a much bigger population than people with mental illness. If we’re going to have a gun registry, let’s focus on the broader category of people behaving in a violent way.”

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Rosenthal noted that very few people wind up in the category with guns. “We always thought the gun control law was stigmatizing and discriminating against and criminalizing people with psychiatric diagnoses,” he said. “It’s an unjust policy. It’s not getting at the real issue that gun violence is a pervasive problem in America — it isn’t about people with mental illness.”

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Rosenthal said he is pleased about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s strong action on gun control. “My objection is that it singles out people with mental illness. It identifies only a small number of people,” he said.

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A concern is that the gun control law could be prohibiting people from seeking mental health services or talking to a therapist, noted Rosenthal. “How do you measure that?” he asked. “We don’t know where the evidence is about it. I still think it’s an issue.” •

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